Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat
- Episode aired Jul 15, 2016
- TV-14
- 52m
IMDb RATING
8.6/10
31K
YOUR RATING
Hopper breaks into the lab to find the truth about Will's death. The boys try to locate the "gate" that will take them to Will.Hopper breaks into the lab to find the truth about Will's death. The boys try to locate the "gate" that will take them to Will.Hopper breaks into the lab to find the truth about Will's death. The boys try to locate the "gate" that will take them to Will.
- Directors
- Writers
- Stars
John Reynolds
- Officer Callahan
- (as John Paul Reynolds)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Featured reviews
Interesting.. I wonder how it's gonna end.
And again, entertaining episode, interesting story. everything are great! but Loser's logic is kinda weird.
On a tight rope
Season 1 was a very promising first season to 'Stranger Things', and to me it's one of the show's better seasons. Of the previous four episodes only "Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street" disappointed a little while still being good. "Chapter Four: The Body" was especially outstanding, with everything that made the previous episodes as good as they were while executing the good things even better while managing to progress the plot.
While not quite as great as the third and fourth episodes, "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" is still great and the plot and character progression has far from stalled. If anything they expanded with each episode, and "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" once again does incredibly well at building upon what was set up from the very beginning, adding more layers and setting up what was to come in later episodes.
"Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" is not quite perfect, with a few lapses in logic. Including a big one mentioned by others that did strike me as rather silly and naive.
Everything else is done absolutely brilliantly however. The acting continues to impress, Millie Bobby Brown especially gives acting beyond her year and El is a character that is interesting and rootable. Finn Woolfhard is also on the road to great things if he keeps giving acting as good as in 'Stranger Things' and in 'IT'. The chemistry between the younger cast is beautifully handled, and has a 'Stand By Me' like nostalgia, one of the things most striking about 'Stranger Things'. Winona Ryder can be too melodramatic in some episodes and fine in others, she's fine here.
The production values are superb. Very stylish and atmospheric, with some truly beautiful images that one can't believe such high quality comes from a Netflix show. Not to mention the highly impressive special effects that put a good deal of big budget films in recent years to shame. The music has a wonderful 80s nostalgic vibe while also being quite haunting, enhancing the atmosphere beautifully.
Writing is thought-probing and has a lot of brains and heart. The humour is gentle but very subtly witty and funny, while there is a poignancy (without being too sentimental) and tension. Throughout "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" has creepiness, intriguing mystery, inventive sci-fi, affectionate nostalgia and emotional impact. The mystery again is even deeper and more complex than before but is always intriguing and never confusing. The ending is suspenseful and makes one excited for what happens next in subsequent episodes.
In summary, great. 9/10.
While not quite as great as the third and fourth episodes, "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" is still great and the plot and character progression has far from stalled. If anything they expanded with each episode, and "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" once again does incredibly well at building upon what was set up from the very beginning, adding more layers and setting up what was to come in later episodes.
"Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" is not quite perfect, with a few lapses in logic. Including a big one mentioned by others that did strike me as rather silly and naive.
Everything else is done absolutely brilliantly however. The acting continues to impress, Millie Bobby Brown especially gives acting beyond her year and El is a character that is interesting and rootable. Finn Woolfhard is also on the road to great things if he keeps giving acting as good as in 'Stranger Things' and in 'IT'. The chemistry between the younger cast is beautifully handled, and has a 'Stand By Me' like nostalgia, one of the things most striking about 'Stranger Things'. Winona Ryder can be too melodramatic in some episodes and fine in others, she's fine here.
The production values are superb. Very stylish and atmospheric, with some truly beautiful images that one can't believe such high quality comes from a Netflix show. Not to mention the highly impressive special effects that put a good deal of big budget films in recent years to shame. The music has a wonderful 80s nostalgic vibe while also being quite haunting, enhancing the atmosphere beautifully.
Writing is thought-probing and has a lot of brains and heart. The humour is gentle but very subtly witty and funny, while there is a poignancy (without being too sentimental) and tension. Throughout "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" has creepiness, intriguing mystery, inventive sci-fi, affectionate nostalgia and emotional impact. The mystery again is even deeper and more complex than before but is always intriguing and never confusing. The ending is suspenseful and makes one excited for what happens next in subsequent episodes.
In summary, great. 9/10.
Let's Try the Other Side
Numerous things take place here. The Sheriff invades the facility where the experimenting is going on, but finds himself back at his trailer. He now knows that Will's body was a fake. It is a dummy, filled with cotton. Of course, the coroner was one of "their" guys. The boys explain the dark vale that is the parallel universe. They take El and start to look for a magnetic center. Will's father shows up for the funeral and we realize that he is after insurance money for the death of his son. After the funeral, Nancy and Jonathan go off on their own, looking for the faceless man. They make some startling discoveries. The boys get in a fight and El uses her power to separate them, but one of them is hurt. During all this, El is having flashbacks of how she was being used.
The Upside Down
Hopper breaks into the Hawkins laboratory and finds the gate; however he is attacked and wakes up home. He searches his home and finds a bug hidden in a light. Jonathan teams up with Nancy to investigate Barb´s disappearance and blows up his photo. They find the monster and decide to search the creature. Lonnie comes to Joyce´s home apparently for Will´s funeral but she finds he wants to sue the quarry to make money and she expels him. Mike, Dustin and Lucas ask Mr. Clake how to cross dimensions and decide to seek out the gate and Will following their compasses. However El interferes with the compasses. When they discover, El flees. Nancy finds a gate and crosses alone.
"Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" shows three groups investigating the same event: the boys, Hopper and Jonathan and Nancy. Joyce learns that she is not crazy about Will. El is scared with the possibility of returning to the lab. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat"
"Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" shows three groups investigating the same event: the boys, Hopper and Jonathan and Nancy. Joyce learns that she is not crazy about Will. El is scared with the possibility of returning to the lab. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat"
Theoretically Awesome
This episode is really necessary to watch if you wants to understand what is going on in this series.
It is just Extraordinarily Strange and interesting.
Did you know
- TriviaWhen the boys and El (Millie Bobby Brown) are walking to try and find the gate, they walk along railroad tracks in pairs, in a scene very reminiscent of scenes from Stand by Me (1986). "Stand By Me" was based on "The Body" by Stephen King. King is a major influence on this series.
- GoofsThe agents attached the Hawkins lab had previously shown themselves to be utterly ruthless in eliminating all evidence of and witnesses to their run-amok experiments. But when Hopper beats info out of a conspiring state police officer, discovers Will's body is a fake, breaks into the lab, and even finds the gate to the Upside Down, they're content to just drug him and drop him off back at his house.
- Quotes
Lucas Sinclair: [while following the compasses along the train tracks] How much further?
Dustin Henderson: I don't know. These only tell direction, not distance. You really need to learn more about compasses!
Lucas Sinclair: I'm just saying: how do we know when we get to the gate?
Dustin Henderson: Uh, I think a portal to another dimension is gonna be pretty obvious!
- ConnectionsReferences Bambi (1942)
- SoundtracksGreen Desert
Written by Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke
Performed by Tangerine Dream
Courtesy of Jive Records
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Filming locations
- Rockdale County Junkyard, Highway 138, Conyers, Georgia(Boys With Eleven, at the Junkyard looking for The Gate)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 52m
- Color
- Sound mix
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