Stranger Things season 3 episode 5: “The Flayed”, summary and analysis
Season 3 · Episode 5 · The Flayed
One file, one order, one road, one basement. You will find the titles and the running time, the thread of the scenes, the lines from the road, what the group sees under the mall, then the Holloway house and the little the hospital adds.
Stranger Things season 3 episode 5 takes place on July 3, 1985, between a farm, an empty house and a mall. The chapter runs 52 minutes: a hostage on the road, a door forced open under the floor, and what that empty house ends up showing.
The essentials
- Full title: “Chapter Five: The Flayed”
- Original title: “Chapter Five: The Flayed”
- Runtime: 52 minutes
- Directed by: Uta Briesewitz. Written by: Paul Dichter
- Release: Thursday, July 4, 2019, with the whole season
- Story date: July 3, 1985
- Cast: Jake Busey (Bruce), Michael Park (Tom), Francesca Reale, Andrey Ivchenko, Brett Gelman (Murray). Todd: Dan Triandiflou. The cashier: Michael Silvio Fortino
- Roles: Robin: Maya Hawke. Erica: Priah Ferguson. Hopper: David Harbour. Joyce: Winona Ryder. Nancy: Natalia Dyer. Jonathan: Charlie Heaton. Steve: Joe Keery. Dustin: Gaten Matarazzo
Contents
The chapter fact file
The title is “Chapter Five: The Flayed”. It picks up the word the group uses in the chapter. French Wikipedia translates it as “Les Flagellés”. In the chapter, the word “army” is said only once: Dustin, on the radio, says “The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins”. The line is aimed at the Soviets. Nobody here talks about an army of people held by the creature. That other line comes in chapter 7: “he's building an army, just like we thought”.
Uta Briesewitz directs. Paul Dichter writes. Their place in the season is covered on the directors page. The episode runs 52 minutes. The wiki gives 52 minutes and 53 seconds. It is episode 22 of the series.
The online release of season 3 falls on Thursday, July 4, 2019, with the whole season. The working title was “The Source”, fifth title of a teaser from December 2018. In the chapter, the group talks about finding “the source”.
The wiki, in its notes, with no source cited, adds two points. Billy appears only in a flashback, unlike the rest of the season. The hospital scene took two nights to shoot.
Short-sleeved shirt, open collar, geometric leaf pattern in pink, light blue and gray on a white ground.
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From the fall to the last shot
The wiki dates the chapter to July 3, 1985. Nancy makes a call, right at the start of that morning. The person who picks up is Jonathan, and he is the one who says “It's 6:00 a.m.”. That is the only time on the timeline. Another time is said later, in the basement, about the night before: “Last night”, “Around 9:00”.
The edit starts with the falling elevator. Then come the farm, the woods, a gas station, the empty house, the arrival in Illinois, the basement under the mall and the hospital. Eleven finds them in the Void during the walk: she says “Illannoy”.
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The opening The fall
The elevator falls. Without a keycard, the buttons are useless.
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The farm The standoff
A hum under the floor, then an armed man. The hostage leaves with them.
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6 a.m. The call
The phone rings. The time given is 6 a.m.
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The woods The explosion
The engine dies. The police car explodes after a warning shout.
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The station The convertible
A cashier, a call, then a car taken by force.
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The house Nobody answers
The air is freezing. Cans of chemicals sit on the table.
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The basement The door
A radio room, then a machine that holds the door open.
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The end The hospital
Tom and Bruce. The two bodies melt into one creature.
The farm, the woods and the gas station
Alexei is already in the prologue of chapter 1, in 1984. The thread of that day, from the bunker to the car taken at the station, is told in the portrait of Alec Utgoff. Here the lines from the road and the hunt for Grigori are added. Hopper has already faced him at the lab, in chapter 3. The farm is not their first encounter.
Under the bed, according to the wiki, a bunker. Hopper and Joyce hear a hum “below us”. Two men are working there. “Hawkins PD.” They do not speak English. Hopper and Joyce tie them up: the wiki says Grigori finds them “tied up”. Grigori comes in with an assault rifle. “Because you are policeman.” “Policemen have rules.” The wiki sees an echo of Die Hard, released in 1988: a wink from the series, not a film the characters could know. Hopper gets the upper hand. “Come on, Smirnoff.” Joyce drives off under fire.
The engine dies. Joyce explains the magnets. Alexei answers “Magnit”, then “Machina”. Hopper gets irritated. Alexei shouts a warning. The car explodes. The vehicle, damaged by the gunfire, is the Blazer K5 belonging to Hopper, the chief of police. On the road to Illinois, he jokes that they will be there “by, like, Friday evening”. Then: “I am not a mechanic”. In his words, Alexei becomes “Russian Scott Clarke”. The wiki adds that the farm was sold in 1984 to a shell company, near transformers.
At the station, Hopper tells the cashier “I'm a cop” and “I'm undercover”. Joyce calls Karen and asks about Will. You hear “At the movies?”. He commandeers Todd’s convertible: “I need to commandeer your vehicle”. To him, the man is a “child murderer”. To Joyce, a forger. “You just call the station.” The wiki describes a yellow convertible, plate “TODFTHR”, set to “Strike Zone” by Loverboy. Grigori has found the exploded car and followed the tracks to the station. The cashier calls him “Khrushchev” and gives him the plate. He does not lose the trail. According to the wiki page about him, a warning from Larry Kline had already led him to the farm. At Murray’s, in Illinois, Joyce says “I thought you said this guy was a journalist”. Hopper answers “He was”. Murray asks them to look at the camera: “Identify yourselves”. Hopper does not know Alexei’s last name. The insults switch to Russian, “bald American pig”, “Soviet scum”, then a metal detector. “Do me a favor and move your lovers' quarrel elsewhere.” Joyce sums up the day: shots, an explosion they barely escaped, the walk, the car they took, and the magnets falling off the fridge. The track is “Boogie Man”, by Sid Phillips. Brett Gelman plays that Murray.
Under the mall
The elevator falls. “Yeah, if we had a keycard.” Erica was supposed to sleep at Tina’s. If she misses Uncle Jack’s party the next day, her mother will take it out on the other three. Dustin suggests climbing, and Steve goes up with him. They find the shaft. In the morning, Dustin calls “Code red”, then “We are innocent children”. They are stuck under Starcourt, and the rest of his call talks about the Red Army, already quoted. Steve does the math: “After eight hours”.
With no water, Erica is ready to drink the green liquid. Robin answers that it is not water. Men arrive. The group slips under a door that closes. The can stuck under it bursts and eats into the floor. “You still wanna drink that?”
Dustin admires the delivery system and talks about “promethium”, Cyborg’s metal. Erica answers “You're all so nerdy”. Robin talks about a ten-year-old child. They suspect a link with the door. The same code as at Scoops Ahoy comes back in the tunnel, and the signal is strong enough to show that the transmitter is very close. The walkie-talkie picks it up: “A trip to China sounds nice”.
According to the wiki, Dustin quotes “Red Dawn”, a 1984 film. Erica has spotted the radio room: “I saw it. First floor, northwest”. The operator catches them. Robin tries “Silver cat”, then “China?”. Steve knocks him out. Dustin says “You won a fight!”. They take what they need to get going: “Getting us our ticket out of here”. Then they see the machine forcing the door. Steve and Robin are not captured here. That happens in chapter 6.
Black bedding: the mall sign in neon, a girl in the center with her hand out, the group, a man in a light patterned shirt, fireworks and a dark creature in the foreground.
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The Holloway house
In the Wheelers’ basement, the group lines up the times. The attack on Mrs. Driscoll was the night before, “Last night”, “Around 9:00”. That is also the time of the sauna test. Then come “She's flayed, just like Billy” and “The Mind Flayer. He flays people”. The wiki credits the word to Mike. Heather is named right after: Billy was doing something to her, and she was afraid.
Nobody answers at the house. “Tom? Heather?” The air is freezing and smells of chemicals. The wiki says Eleven opens the door with her mind, and that a dozen cans are on the table. Nothing in the room shows where Tom and Janet have gone.
Mr. Clarke’s lesson comes back. “Posit.” Lucas and Will answer together: “You create a new substance.” Nancy sees blood. The night before, Tom had a bandage on his forehead. She says he was attacked.
Someone in the room works out what follows: “They must have tied them.” “They must have taken them somewhere.” According to the wiki, Nancy concludes that Tom was attacked, dragged to the garage and then taken away. Mrs. Driscoll kept saying “I have to go back”. Then comes the idea of a source, a place where it all supposedly started. “why don't we let her?” The wiki attributes that last line to Mike. The decision is to let her lead them to that source, where people would become possessed.
What the chapter leaves open
The hospital scene is covered in full in Nancy’s investigation at the paper. Two visitors at a time. She and Jonathan talk again in the elevator. Mrs. Driscoll is gone. Tom says “She's gone home”. Jonathan hits him with a vase. Bruce calls “Nancy Drew”, then “Marco”. Nancy answers “Polo” and hits him with the fire extinguisher. Jonathan stabs Tom in the neck, Nancy finishes off Bruce. The bodies melt into a creature that roars.
Meanwhile, Mike and Eleven talk again in front of a vending machine. “Does your species like M&M's?” “I like the new look.” Nothing else of their fight is shown in this shot.
Three things stay open. The creature born of Tom and Bruce. Alexei, who has not yet said what he knows. The door held open under the mall. The wiki, under influences, notes Terminator, from 1984, for Grigori, plus Red Dawn and Die Hard, already cited. An Evil Dead poster is in Jonathan’s room. A poster for The Thing is in Mike’s basement. Tom and Bruce, held by the creature, die in this chapter. Billy does not die in it.
White T-shirt, SCOOPS in red. The mascot is itself an ice-cream cone, wearing an AHOY cap, with an anchor flag. A mention of the mall and “Oceans of Flavour”.
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Frequently asked questions
What does the chapter say about the word “army”?
Only once, and not about the people held by the creature. Dustin says “The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins”. He is talking about the Soviets. The other line, “he's building an army, just like we thought”, is in chapter 7.
How is the word “flayed” used?
The group says “She's flayed, just like Billy”, then “The Mind Flayer. He flays people”. The wiki credits the word to Mike. The original title is “Chapter Five: The Flayed”. French Wikipedia translates it as “Les Flagellés”.
How do Hopper and Joyce find Alexei?
At the farm, under the floor, where two men are working on a machine. Grigori arrives armed and says “Policemen have rules”. Hopper gets the upper hand and takes Alexei with him.
How does Grigori pick up their trail?
He finds the exploded car, follows the tracks, and the cashier gives him the plate along with a description. He does not lose the trail. Earlier, according to his wiki page, a warning from Larry Kline had led him to the farm.
What do they find in the Holloway house?
Nobody. A freezing house, a smell of chemicals and a dozen cans on the table, according to the wiki. The group infers that Tom and Janet were tied up and taken away.
Are Steve and Robin captured in this episode?
No. They see the machine holding the door open, and their thread stops there for this chapter. The capture is in chapter 6.
Who directs the episode, and how long does it run?
Uta Briesewitz directs. Paul Dichter writes. The episode runs 52 minutes. The wiki gives 52 minutes and 53 seconds. It is released on July 4, 2019.
When does this chapter take place?
July 3, 1985, according to the wiki timeline. Jonathan says “It's 6:00 a.m.” on the phone.
