All right, warning: I'm about to get into some major spoilers,
so turn away if you have not watched Stranger Things 2...
now.
Out of my mouth: between the death of Bob Newby;
the threat of Earthly domination from the mind flayer;
and worst of all, the Steve and Nancy breakup,
Hawkins Lab has got a lot of new blood on its grimy hands,
so let's uncover the truth about it all
with these folks right here, right now on Beyond Stranger Things.
- Hello. - Hi!
- Whoo! - [all laughing]
[theme music playing]
All right. Joining me now at the table...
Oh, my God. You all took a drink at the same time!
To discuss everything Stranger Things 2.
She plays Nancy. Natalia Dyer is with us.
Jonathan, Charlie Heaton, is with us.
He plays Steve. Joe Keery is here. And Brett Gelman, who plays Murray.
Thank you all for being here. I want to start sort of actually with...
Which was such a fun scene, to be in Barb's house.
One, to meet her parents, to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.
That was the first scene we did this...
- [Jim] First thing you shot? - The first day I worked.
- First day? - [Joe] Yeah.
Early on. I don't think it was my first scene,
- but definitely our first together. - [Joe] That was fun.
Forgot about the time and then before you know it, oh my God, it's five o'clock.
It's fine. It's great.
I love KFC.
[Jim] It's too good, because of the casting of her parents.
All of it played very nicely. I loved it.
- [Natalia] Joe ate so much. - [Joe] Me and him, we ate so much.
You didn't even spit bucket it? You just went for it?
- How many hours? - A lot of takes.
It was like, probably about seven good takes
at the end of me going... [chomps]
This is finger lickin' good.
Mm.
[Jim] At that dinner table, in all seriousness,
for Nancy this is driven by sort of a guilt,
you know, for what happened to Barb.
Nancy had kind of been having these dinners with Barb's family,
and then at this particular dinner,
the Hollands present, you know, this information about this detective.
[Mrs. Holland] And anyway, he's freelance now and...
he agreed to take the case.
[Natalia] I think, in some ways,
at the beginning of thisseason,
we're all seeing how people are dealing with things,
or in Nancy's case, not dealing with things.
[woman] Nancy?
Nancy!
Nancy.
But I think when Mrs. Holland talks about the detective,
and how she still has hope, sets off a chain reaction in her.
- [Natalia] "This can't go on like this." - [Jim] Yeah.
[Natalia] You know, I can't keep pretending...
[Jim] It's a huge moment to start her on what will become this whole journey.
And for Steve as well, because he has a different opinion of this.
Right. 'Cause also, you know, you can't really do anything,
because of the people that are behind the situation.
There's nothing we can do.
Yeah. We can tell them the truth.
But you know that we can't do that.
You can have sympathy, but there's nothing you can do.
You're kind of backed into this corner, where...
This whole, like, oppressive entity.
The Hawkins people that are kind of Big Brother,
you know, in a way. So it's almost like a dangerous notion to fight that.
Definitely a disagreement that I imagine
that Steve and Nancy have had over the past year.
Wanting to do something,
- and being, like, "No..." - Because this sort of gets us
to this emotional scene, this drunk moment,
when you're basically dealt the blow...
It's great. Like...
We're in love, and we're partying.
Yeah, let's party, mm-hmm.
Party. We're partying.
This... This is bullshit.
"Like" we're in love?
It's like, all of a sudden, I know what feels right.
I know what is right, despite what maybe everything else tells me.
Real quick, I want to go to Charlie,
'cause I wanna talk about you two in the hallway,
and what becomes another pivotal moment,
which is an invitation to a Halloween party. You know...
Nancy's always inviting people to parties,
and then getting messed up, and then things just...
- [Charlie] It's true. - [Jim] Yeah.
You're coming to this.
"Come and get sheet-faced."
No, I'm not going.
I can't let you sit all alone Halloween. It's just not acceptable.
They're the only two people who really understand each other's dynamic.
[Natalia] From the get-go, we were the ones who wanted to figure it out.
I need to tell you something.
Something about... Barb.
[Nancy] About that night. I...
I... I haven't been honest with you.
But I can't tell you here on the phone.
We have this plan in the park. I just wanna set some theories about this.
[Charlie] The one in the car?
- There's on the car. - The Radioshack.
- It starts on the car, right? - [Jim] It starts on the car.
I have a funny story. Do you know the first story about the car?
Why they decided to shoot it on the car?
That wasn't supposed to be shot on top of the car.
Where was it? That's a beautiful shot.
We were supposed to shoot it in part of the school, on the field. Sat down.
And then Shawn said, "I've been talking to the brothers
about when they were young, and when they were teenagers at school."
- [Natalia] Oh, yeah. - [Charlie] They would...
Every time at lunch, they would just go to their car and eat lunch.
You know? Just kind of be together, and to be by themselves.
Earlier they said they failed kindergarten,
because they weren't social enough.
Guys, we are learning so much about them.
[Jim] Now to the actual thing. We're in the park.
Was this a plan to get captured?
[Natalia] Their plan is to get taken by the Hawkins people.
Sure you don't need that ride?
And they don't know exactly what they're gonna find.
But it's, like, they know they have to get in there.
They have to have some way to prove it.
[Brett] Paul Reiser is going to threaten you in the nicest way.
You see why I have to stop the truth from spreading, too.
Just the same as those weeds there.
By whatever means necessary.
[groaning, hissing]
Basically, that obviously eventually takes us to Murray.
Gotta connect the right dots.
Timeline's wrong.
I'm sorry?
Did you ever have a theory about Murray's intentions with Barb's parents?
Well, my backstory, which you don't see in the series,
but his family was destroyed
as a result of him trying to uncover whatever he was trying to uncover
when he worked for the Sun-Times.
I think, in a way, finding out what happened to Barb,
he can sort of make things right with his daughter and his family.
It's also interesting that you start with Hopper.
You start... I mean, we meet you with him.
And you're dismissed.
[Murray] I talked to a Big Buy ex-employee
who said some little girl shattered the door with her mind.
I heard that. Did you hear the one about the fat man
- with the beard who climbs down chimneys? - [Brett] A big thing with the character
was that he was sort of the representation of these
paranoid political thrillers of the '70s.
Matt and Ross talked to me a lot about movies like All the President's Men,
and The Parallax View, and Marathon Man.
He's sort of like the Richard Dreyfuss character in Jaws,
- [Jim] Yes. - in that he sees what is really going on,
and is trying to wake up this small town around him.
I don't think he sees somebody like Hopper as somebody who's bad,
but somebody who's just trying to go throughout their life asleep.
- Don't you get it, Jim? - No.
This has potentially international implications.
I'm talking a full-on Russian invasion right here in Hawkins!
We don't have David Harbour, but we do have what he thinks about Murray on tape,
so why don't we just look at that on this wonderful television?
I love Brett Gelman, and I love what he does
in the series, and I'm very hopeful
that there'll be more Brett Gelman, and more Murray Bowman.
I think Hopper finds Murray endlessly annoying.
[chuckles]
What's so interesting is the antagonistic relationship
that he has with Murray in this season.
And so it would be fun to see
Hopper and Murray have to team up in some way to solve a problem,
- and the... - That would be so good.
All the buddy cop antics that could ensue.
That was a lot of compliments he dealt you.
There was this amazing buddy type of dynamic
where you could see how that would grow into something...
- longer. - Yes.
Even though he thinks Hopper is clueless,
he sees that this guy is his best shot...
- [Jim] Yeah. - at getting at the rest of the town.
I think there is definitely a Nancy-Murray connection,
of their need to figure things out.
He's way more on it, and Nancy's just kind of figuring it out about herself
- but there's kind of like... - I think he sees...
I see you as like, "Oh, this is a young me."
You're being naive, Nancy. Those people...
They're not wired like me and you, okay?
They don't spend their lives trying to get a look at what's behind the curtain.
They like the curtain.
[Jim] It's interesting, your conspiracy theory,
but then there's this meddling into
and reading what's happening right in front of you.
Right. Well, this is like its own little lie.
- That they're not together, you know? - [Joe] Uncovering...
So I'm going to expose
that he has to obsessively expose everything that is bullshit.
My goodness.
You two are adorable, aren't you?
And obviously, Murray plays a huge part in these two coming towards each other.
So huge.
- I bring it all together, - [Jim] Oh, you do.
- I make it happen. - [Jim] You make it happen.
I'm a real paranoid yenta.
[Murray] There's a pullout sofa in my study if you want it.
But if I were you,
I'd just cut the bullshit
and share the damn bed.
[Brett] He is a matchmaker.
[Jim] He was. It worked. He got to the truth.
[Brett] And then he cooks them breakfast the next day.
- That scene was the hardest scene to film. - That was so hard to film.
- The egg drop. - [Natalia] You can't plan that.
- You just gotta roll with it. - I dropped some eggs...
- You're like, "Ooh." - accidentally, and I look at...
Jonathan... Murray looks at Jonathan, and goes, "Oops."
So, Jonathan...
How was the pullout?
[coughs] Sorry?
The sofa.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it was good.
I bet.
Oops. [chuckles]
- [Brett] Awkward. - [Natalia] It was improv.
- You can see Natalia's like... - That entire scene.
[Brett] That was fun.
Oops. [chuckles]
[director] Cut.
[crew laughing]
Each of these people are bumping into each other for a reason,
and changing the course of it. Just for fun,
let's just say that Steve was locked into this little room with...
What do you think Murray's truth would be at that moment?
I think I would say something along the lines of, you know,
- "Get over it, dude." - "She doesn't love you, man."
- You can have a late night with someone... - Look, you need somebody else,
and you don't even know who you are.
So before anybody is going to fall in love with you,
hang back, figure out who you are.
I may be a pretty...
shitty boyfriend, but...
turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter.
Because Jonathan is one of the most self-aware characters from the get-go
of the beginning of the show... I mean, he knows who he is.
No. No way. You're going to be home by eight,
listening to the Talking Heads, and...
reading Vonnegut, or something.
- Sounds like a nice night. - You feel that Jonathan knew who he was?
Sort of in the very beginning.
Probably from his responsibilities to his family, and being that kind of...
man of the house in some respects. I felt like he chooses to be alone.
I feel like he has always known who he is, and he'll always stick to that.
Between Steve and Jonathan, I want to talk about
whether these two need some kind of confrontation
because of what's happened at the end.
And I'm curious about your thoughts on that.
A physical or an aggressive conflict, I don't think is what's needed.
I think it's like a reconciliation or something, you know?
I can't really get mad also at, like...
'Cause, I mean, you kind of see it coming.
You know what I mean? It's kind of obvious that you guys do share feelings,
you know, from even early, I think, in parts of the first season.
That's some of the insecurities that my character has.
That's why I initially break his camera,
and get on him, sort of.
[Steve] Here you go, man.
- [lens shatters] - [boy chuckles]
It's part of that, like, wanting to control the situation.
And we kind of talked about at the very... When we first started,
you know, Steve's plan for life was,
you know, kind of very, like, laid out,
and that, you know, Nancy was probably part of it.
You start off in the series as one of the most selfish characters,
and then you move into being one of the most selfless characters.
- [growls] - [screams]
- Out of the way! Watch out! I've got this! - [growls]
I think season one, it's like... They talk about fans who were really,
"Why isn't Jonathan and Nancy together?"
and now that's come to fruition. I mean, do you feel like this is correct?
This is the true pair?
I think it's obvious to everybody
that there is this kindredness between Nancy and Jonathan,
and I think maybe also because Jonathan is so self-aware,
and I think we kind of see Nancy on her way to be more like that,
and finds herself a little bit more.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
We started our conversation with Barb's parents,
and it seems fitting that I at least ask you,
'cause we obviously put her to rest.
Do we believe there's justice for Barb?
I do think Nancy's goal was to at least get the truth out to her parents.
At least to, like, you know, so they don't keep looking.
- To kind of just know that it's over. - [Charlie] To have closure.
And have closure for sure.
I don't know if, like, in the grand scheme of things,
- you can say there's overall justice. - [Joe] What does justice for Barb mean?
I don't know, but what we should do... Let's see what Shannon Purser,
who played Barb, has to say about closure,
'cause we have a little interview with her as well on our TV.
To the TV.
[Natalia] To the tape.
[Shannon] In episode nine, there's this big funeral, finally, for Barb.
It's really heartbreaking watching, you know,
her parents kind of have this realization,
sort of, of what happened to her.
It's weird that I feel so attached to, like, this little family
that I've never really met.
I think it's... it's such a sweet gesture
to see a lot of people cared about Barb.
It is very weird to have a funeral,
and to see people crying over pictures of yourself.
That's, like, one thing that kind of, like, I laughed at.
It was just all these, like, baby pictures of me,
and photos of me from when I'm, like, five and six years old.
And those are actually, like, my baby pictures. My childhood pictures.
Memories from my actual life,
and now they're like a part of Barb's life, too.
- Wow. - [Charlie] That's awesome stuff.
[Joe] I remember walking into the house,
- and seeing those photos... - [Natalia] That shrine.
- And being like, "Oh, my God." - [Jim] I know.
It was so sweet. And also, when we did the funeral scene,
it was like a super hot day,
and we wearing all these, like, heavy coats.
- But the booklet, the pamphlet... - The little flyer?
[Joe] It was so sweet. There's messages for Barbara Holland.
I have mine. We all signed it, and I have this Barb token.
Yeah, I love that. I have to just say, because that's a big thing.
You have this character who, minor or major,
plays a major effect on both, really, what happens in season one,
but more so in what happened in the sequel.
I mean, it's pretty crazy, and a beautiful thing
in that it ties it all together,
and really became the mission for everybody.
You know, it certainly started at that... around KFC.
[laughter]
I want to thank you all. This has been an awesome discussion
about anything and everything Stranger Things 2,
as far as it concerned this love triangle and matchmake-up.
At this point, you should know what happens next.
You're gonna see me sitting here,
but with some brand-new guests, and even more questions
on Beyond Stranger Things, starting right...
now.
[theme music playing]