2 things I really liked in this volume:

I really enjoyed the performance of Jaime Campbell Bower. A supernatural human antagonist finally after so long. He was scary, cool and totally captivating. After fighting enemies without a face for so long, it was great to see them change things up. So his power origin is completely his own and not related to the upside down at all? Might have missed a couple of things. The character of Eddie I also enjoyed. Scene stealer for sure and fits in with the rest of the cast seamlessly.

I feel sorry for my California crew, particularly Jonathan. He really hasn’t done much since the second season and now the writers alluding to Nancy and Steve again is a bad retread imo. I always thought Jonathan needed more interactions with characters other than Nancy, and was excited cause this season was different, but they don’t even know what to with him. He has no contribution or affect. Hopefully he, will and mike actually do something in the final two episodes.

Also I’m sorry but one main character gotta die. There’s no stakes if you only kill tertiary characters while the main characters remain unscathed. Steve seems like the most obvious candidate, and maybe the gut punch the show needs.