Scary Movie and Cabin In The Woods have both poked fun at the "rules" about teenagers in horror movies, but Stranger Things twists this trope yet again. That said, go home and start a new D&D campaign with your friends if you don't want to ruin the ending, because I'm about to get into some major spoilers for Stranger Things Season 1 territory. What happened to Barb on Stranger Things ? The monster's victim is not who you would stereotypically expect.
Barb is Nancy's best friend. They're good students, basically the unpopular girls. They're nerds, but in a different way than the geekier young boys, who are in the A/V Club and everything. However, Nancy has just started maybe-sorta-dating the cool guy Steve Harrington, and when the two girls sneak out to go to a party at his house, everything goes wrong. Like, Barb gets abducted by a monster from an alternate dimension, wrong. The worst!
Just before Barb disappears, she and Nancy get into a fight. It's clear that Nancy is going upstairs to hook up with Steve, and Barb feels as though she's losing her friend both to a boyfriend/new experiences and to a more popular crowd. I'm not gonna lie and say that I don't get Barb's situation. Throughout most of my teen and college years (and sometimes still as an adult) I lived in a constant fear that my friends were going to abandon me for greener pastures. I have been that girl before. But I have also been Nancy before — and it hurts just as much when it feels like a friend is trying to hold you back. This is mirrored later with Lucas's jealousy over Mike and Eleven's friendship. I don't think either of them was in the right or in the wrong, but when Barb is taken by the monster, Nancy unfortunately feels a little bit responsible.
While Jonathan lurks outside taking pictures, Barb is sucked into the Upside Down and kept with Will in the monster's... web? Nest? It's something creepy, and involving tentacles. When Eleven, and later Joyce, come across her she certainly looks dead. However, since Joyce and Chief Hopper were able to revive Will and get him out of the Upside Down, couldn't someone do that for Barb? Seems rude to leave her there and not try.
On the other hand, I feel like there should be some consequences to this monster's attack. Maybe Barb really is too far gone. If there was any hope for you, you would think that Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve would have gone to get her. On the other hand, maybe Season 2 will be all about her escape from the Upside Down instead. Stranger Things leaves a lot of things open in ways that are less frustrating and more intriguing. I definitely can't wait to see what happens next.
Image: Netflix
