Wednesday, November 25 marked the debut of Season 5, the highly anticipated final season of Netflix’s gob-smacking runaway freight train of a series Stranger Things.
We should all give thanks to the Brothers Duffer.
One of the main held tenants of Save the Cat! storytelling is to give the audience a hero “with a pegleg and an eyepatch,” or simply put, build a flawed hero, with obstacles to overcome.
But the real challenge is to make those flaws become the character’s strengths.
Rarely have I seen a television series so adroitly pull this feat off, regarding the character arc of Karen Wheeler, meticulously brought to life by actor Cara Buono.
Karen’s introduction in Season 1 is that of the stereotypical soccer mom: flawlessly pulled together, raising 3 children—Nancy, Mike, and Holly—all while building a suburban utopia in Hawkins, Indiana.
But, this is the 80s; therefore, all that looks perfect, may not be. Like the mothers in Heathers and Less than Zero, there is a slight undercurrent of something darker going on. As the story unfolds, we discover that Karen’s older kids—like all GenXers—spend their time not just riding bikes and drinking hose water, but battling demons set on destroying them… and the world.
Mike secretly houses El in the basement. Nancy has developed a penchant for guns. Karen’s husband Ted is a good, hardworking man who truly loves his family; and yet, he is checked out as a father and a husband. Karen begins to have a couple of glasses of wine with dinner.
By Season 3, Karen has moved from a tertiary character into a solid secondary one. She now drinks wine not only with dinner, but while she takes bubble baths and reads romance novels. In a titillating scene with resident bad boy Billy, Karen comes this close to living her own version of Summer of ’42.
All while her children face mortal terror.
Flash forward to Season 5. We open 584 days after the conclusion of Season 4. Hawkins is under military quarantine. The Byers clan has moved into Karen’s formerly pristine home. Karen herself is a bit of a wreck—box-bleached hair in a stringy perm, clothes not quite as snatched as they used to be, and indications that her marriage is under great duress.
And so, we move into the Teaser open of Episode 2.
The episode is a continuation of the previous one: Holly, the youngest Wheeler, is in peril as a Demogorgon attacks her in her bedroom, while Ted mindlessly hits golf balls in the yard. And Karen?
Karen—in a perfect reference to Poltergeist—takes another bubble bath. She plays “Fernando” as she drinks an impressive quantity of chardonnay.
Then, all hell breaks loose. Holly escapes and runs screaming to her mom. The Demogorgon appears, and Karen snaps out of her self-indulgence. As Ted distracts the monster, Karen grabs Holly and flees to the kitchen, followed by the beast. There is no escape.
And then, Karen places herself in front of her child. She grabs her wine—no longer a crutch, but a weapon. She smashes its base onto the countertop, creating an impressive instrument, and in an epic moment, raises it and snarls “Stay. Away. From my Daughter.”
She attacks the Demogorgon, again, and again, and again, greatly injuring it.
This is a spectacular journey. Karen has not just moved from Soccer Mom to Siren to Superhero; she has transformed from Mom into Mother—the primal matriarch, the divine feminine who will use every power she has to protect her family—at all costs.
An iconic moment in television… and character.
Her flaws become her strength.
Hats off to the writer who has been sitting on “Karen. With her wine.”
Have you read the beat sheet for the pilot of Stranger Things?
