Before you go any further, SPOILER WARNING for Stranger Things Season 2

I’m going to begin this by saying that I love all superhero movies. However almost all of them follow the same basic plot lines. They all show the absolute ideal situation where the bad guy always loses, the good guy learns a lesson and everyone is safe and sound. As nice it seems, it’s just not realistic. Yes I know that superpowers aren’t realistic either, but if I’m being told a story, I want it to be realistic.

That’s where the Duffer Brothers step in. Stranger Things may not really seem like a superhero story but season two showed that maybe it could be. In season two we find out that Eleven isn’t the only one with special powers. We meet Kali at the beginning of the season but other than seeing that she can make people see things, we know nothing about her. Later on in the season we find out that she was actually another experiment and that she’s number Eight. Kali and Eleven then form a connection after talking about their previous time together, which Eleven doesn’t remember, and the fact that they both share the same traumatic experience with their powers. Kali, now reunited with her “sister”, introduces Eleven to her “team”. She explains that her team have been going out and getting revenge on the bad people who did this to her. She invites Eleven out with them on their next mission.

It finally hit me that this is actually a hidden superhero show. I started to remember how in season one, the show talks about what happened to Eleven and instead of highlighting the superpowers they highlight the Upside Down. By not talking about the superpowers you don’t consider it a superhero movie. But in season two they show that the upside down is the home to a monster that can control an army of other monsters and the only person that can end it is Eleven, with her powers.

Back to the mission Eleven is going on with Kali and the team of outcast vigilantes. They get there and it becomes clear to Eleven that they aren’t actually a group of cool vigilantes, but they are actually a group of deeply damaged people following a girl on a revenge murder streak. Everything then goes wrong and Eleven ends up leaving the team behind to go home and help her family. In the fashion of keeping everything realistic the Duffer Brothers show that the normal people aren’t safe like in superhero movies. Instead, like in real life, everyone is in danger and no one is immune to damage. They make that point clear when they kill off a new but beloved character who was being a hero. They also make sure to show you that he didn’t die a heroic death, but that he was just some food.

Even when Eleven, the hero, shows up, she doesn’t walk around flicking her fingers and making everything better. She does kill a few little monsters but when it comes time to fight the big guy she doesn’t fight the little monsters. Instead, Hopper, who uses a gun to keep Eleven safe, accompanies her. They do this because Eleven gets drained when she uses her power so it wouldn’t make sense that all of a sudden she could use her powers super easily. The biggest thing that separates Stranger Things from a typical superhero movie is that they don’t have the hero and main villain fight; instead she just uses her power to close the gate. She does use more power than she ever used before but they still don’t make her fight the main monster because it wouldn’t make sense if a tiny girl beat a giant monster.

The show ends with giving Eleven the chance to live a normal life but made it clear that this was not the end. The last few seconds confirms the fact that Eleven didn’t hurt the main monster at all. In addition to leaving the whole villain story line open they also leave the whole hero story line open. By introducing someone else like Eleven and naming her Eight they made it clear that Nine and Ten would make an appearance soon. Even though I’m not sure what route the Duffer Brothers will take, I’m extremely excited to see what they come up with and I can’t wait to watch everything the day its released!