Let’s overanalyze the Stranger Things season 3 trailer

Stranger Things will premiere on July 4, and Netflix has finally dropped a trailer. Not an ad for the Starcourt Mall, an actual trailer. It’s got tons of action, a new monster, and a Dustin and Steve bro-down that steals the show:

GIF courtesy of The Pixel Factor.

Before we start, take another look at the trailer:

It looks like some time has passed since season 2. It’s the summer of 1985, Dustin has just returned home from camp, and he’s sad that no one’s there to greet him:

All of a sudden, Dustin’s toys start to move down the hall. What is even going on?

Of course, it’s Eleven making the toys move, and Dustin’s friends surprise him. Look at Mike and Eleven holding hands. So cute.

But no good deed goes unpunished, and Lucas hilariously gets a face full of hairspray.

Dustin probably gave Lucas cancer with that, because hairspray in the ’80s was mostly asbestos, with some nuclear radiation thrown in.

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Anyway, the next thing we see is the gang all back together as they walk up a hill and erect some kind of…antenna? Are they trying to contact aliens? Come on guys, isn’t one terrifying shadow monster enough to keep you busy?

Moving on, we get a shot of The Hawkins Post building, where Nancy and Jonathan look like they’re applying for jobs.

Here’s season 2 bad boy Billy, who is now a lifeguard. All the girls are appropriately in awe of him.

But it looks like he only has eyes for Karen Wheeler, Mike’s mom. Again, I ask you: What even is going on?

Sheriff Hopper is having dinner with someone:

And then we get a bunch of shots of people being super sad. Joyce is sad…

…Dustin is sad about Lucas and Max…

…Mike is sad…

…and Will is really sad:

He’s been looking at photos of his friends. I wonder if they’ve had a falling out.

But don’t worry, because not all is sad. Here’s Eleven and Max listening to some tunes.

Of course, Dustin and Steve are still close friends, and they even have their own bro-down greeting. Yes, that’s an imaginary lightsaber duel. I love these guys.

Reddit loved it, too:

"Betrayal from StrangerThings"

Eleven seems to be having an out of body experience at the Starcourt Mall, while Max looks right at home.

No 1980s mall experience is complete without glamour shots.

Elsewhere, the good people of Hawkins don’t seem to like the mayor or the mall…or pretzels. “Their pretzels aren’t even that good,” reads the sign in the back. It’s important to demonstrate.

The mayor decides to have a fun night fair…

…where Hopper is chased by some guy with a gun:

Looks like Hopper comes out of it okay. He got the guy’s gun, I think:

And in case you forgot this show was about monsters, here’s a shot of the gate to the Upside Down:

Looks like the government isn’t done meddling where it doesn’t belong. They get a shock for their troubles.

Have they awakened something from the other side that has the rats running?

It looks like Billy may have been infected with whatever the gate is spewing out. Could the rats be carriers of some kind of virus that allows the Shadow Monster to use people as zombie spies, like it did with Will in season 2? Here he is having a serious shower moment: