It’s to
this child’s credit that I heard the name “Eleven” throughout the whole of
season 1 and never thought about Matt Smith.
Since the latest season of Stranger
Things dropped earlier this summer, it’s got me thinking about the Hawkins
gang again, and while the show has plenty of good things going for it, Eleven remains
my favorite (Eleven-related spoilers that can’t be avoid.)
The
creepy small child with powers is a hallmark of supernatural/horror-type stuff,
and Eleven’s introduction certainly fits the bill on that. She’s raised in a mysterious lab by shadowy
government scientists, first appears in a hospital gown with a shaved head, can
actually kill people with her mind, and speaks mostly in cryptic single-word
sentences. Check, check, and check.
Her powers are by turns awesome (that truck, man) and horrifying, both
for her (making contact with the Demogorgon) and those around her (effortlessly
snapping someone’s neck with her telekinesis.)
Seeing her in action, the boys are alternately excited, wowed, scared,
and sobered by what she can do.
But hand
in hand with the powers go Eleven’s trauma.
This girl has been horrifically messed-up by the scientist who’s taught
her to call him “Papa,” who kidnapped her and has been grooming her to be a
spy/future weapon against the Russians, who pushes her toward a monster from
another dimension to poke at it because he wants to see what will happen, who
calls her the number he tattooed on her body, who shoves her into the enclosed
spaces he knows she fears, who looks at the destructive force of her powers and
sees potential. When she escapes at the
start of the series, Eleven is terrified, plagued by guilt over something she
hadn’t wanted to do in the first place, and completely disoriented by the world
around her.
One of
the real joys of the series is Eleven discover the world. In season 1, I love her wonder at eating Eggos,
and I just adore that moment where, after Dustin’s repeatedly tried to get her
to float the Millennium Falcon model with her powers, she does it for fun when
she’s alone in the house. It’s wonderful
to see her learning what friends are and that people can be kind. In season 2, she seems to find one prison
traded for another, albeit more well-intentioned, one (the road to hell,
Hopper…), and she chafes at her protective constraints. She and Hopper get angry with each other in
that painful/yearning way that only people who really care about each other
can. She seeks to uncover her past,
understand who and what she is, and figure out what that means for her. In season 3, she navigates “normal” tween life
with having superpowers: kissing boys, making friends, sneaking out and
enjoying the mall. She struggles to
understand the quagmire of boy/girl relationships and immature boys who don’t
say what they feel, but she also has honest fun and comes into herself more
than ever as a person – the delight in her eyes as she snaps those suspenders
is one of the purest things I’ve seen all summer.
On the
flipside, it breaks my heart to see how used she is. Even the kis, who do like her, are often
preoccupied with what she can do for them.
Demonstrate her powers. Contact
Will. Find Will. Find the gate. Heck, open a locked door. In season 1, when the kids finally connect
with the adults and the teens, even though they’ve spent the day hiding from
Eleven’s former captors and Eleven is burnt out from flipping a truck with her mind, she’s immediately asked to make
contact with Will and Barb in the Upside Down.
I understand the impulse, since a) the stakes are super-real and b) she
can do what no one else can, but I’m sure that’s what Dr. Brenner thought,
too. In light of all she’s been through
and been forced to do, it makes me sad that even the people who are nice to her
make demands of her and, despite whatever earnest kindness they show her, take
a long time to indicate that they’d still like her if she didn’t do things for
them. She deserves more than that, and
thank goodness Max comes along. As the
two girls develop a friendship in season 3, it’s super-satisfying to see Max
take Eleven under her wing and teach her the ways, not just of being a tween
girl, but of doing what she wants.
Whether that means breaking the rules or saying for herself what she can and
can’t handle (Eleven’s a hero, so she’s naturally inclined to want to help
anyway, but it’s important that it’s her
choice to make,) it’s high time Eleven had someone in her corner who gives her
that space.
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