Stranger Things: Every Season 3 Episode Ranked Worst To Best

After a fair bit of exposition and moving the pieces around the chessboard earlier in the season, it's hard on the gas in the penultimate episode of Stranger Things 3 — Chapter 7., a.k.a. "The Bite."

Alexei is killed by a Russian goon clearly meant to resemble the unstoppable Terminator. Hopper battles the killer in a carnival funhouse. The gang holes up in Hopper's cabin on the 4th of July, while the now-massive, Thing-like Mind Flayer hunts them down, leading to the group battling it as a number of its tentacles come crashing through the building. Lucas, who seemed to be a bit of an afterthought in Season 3, gets his moment, hacking off an appendage with an axe to save Eleven.

They then high-tail it to the mall (first stopping at a grocery store), where Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica are already mixing it up with the Russians.

Two things put "The Bite" over the top. One is exactly what the title refers to: The Mind Flayer takes a chunk out of Eleven in the battle at Hopper's cabin, and leaves her a memento for her troubles. Better, Steve confesses his feelings for Robin while both are under the influence of a Russian truth serum — and Robin comes out as gay. The reveal, and Steve's reaction — not sullen and rejected, but rather accepting — is probably one of the best examples of handling rejection to grace the screen in years.