The Bite

This article is a stub. Help out this community by adding more information!

Spoiler Warning! This article or section reveals details from the third season. Read at your own discretion...

CHAPTER SEVENChapter Seven:The Bite
Season	3
Episode	7
Overall	24
Premiere date	July 4, 2019
Runtime	55:00
Written by	The Duffer Brothers
Directed by	The Duffer Brothers
Episode Guide
Previous	[[E Pluribus Unum|"E Pluribus Unum"]]
Next	[[The Battle of Starcourt|"The Battle of Starcourt"]]

"Chapter Seven: The Bite" is the seventh episode of the third season of Stranger Things and the twenty-fourth episode overall. It premiered on July 4, 2019.

Synopsis

With time running out -- and an assassin close behind -- Hopper's crew races back to Hawkins, where El and the kids are preparing for war.

Plot

Larry Kline giving a speech at the Fun Fair

The residents of Hawkins are enjoying the 4th of July Fun Fair as they run around riding rides and playing carnival games. The Hawkins High School band performs as Larry Kline comes up onto the stage to give a speech. As Kline gives his speech, Ted, Karen, and Holly are boarding a ferris wheel. The ride starts up as Ted nervously looks around. Kline finishes his speech just as the ferris wheel stops at the top to give the Wheelers a good view of the fireworks as they start. Holly notices that the trees have unusually began to shake. Karen tells her to ignore them and enjoy the fireworks but Holly remains concerned about it.

As the fireworks continue to go off in the distance, the Party, along with Jonathan and Nancy discuss the visions that Eleven has just seen in Hopper's cabin. Eleven tells the group that the Mind Flayer had told her that he was "building something". The group concludes that the Mind Flayer is after Eleven since she was the one that closed the gate in 1984. With her out of the way the Mind Flayer would become unstoppable. Nancy then hears the trees outside the cabin shake and Will senses the Mind Flayer's presence. The group attempts to flee the cabin, but are stopped in their tracks once they see the Mind Flayer approaching them.

Meanwhile, beneath the Starcourt Mall, Dustin drives a golf cart as he and Erica continue to help Steve and Robin escape from the Russian guards. The group boards the elevator to return to the mall as Steve and Robin, who are still high from the truth serum, laugh and mess around with the cart on the elevator. They eventually make it back to ground level, but turn around and go back inside when they are spotted by two security guards. Back at the cabin, Eleven's group prepares for a battle with the Mind Flayer as Nancy and Jonathan arm themselves with a shotgun and axe respectively while the others use furniture and other large objects to barricade the room. They wait for the Mind Flayer in anticipation as various objects around the room begin to shake.

Eventually, the Mind Flayer breaks into the cabin and begins attacking them. Jonathan tries to sever one of its limbs with the axe but it throws him against the wall. Nancy also tries to shoot it with the shotgun but runs out of bullets. It then tries to attack Nancy but is stopped by El's telekinesis. El then severs the arm as two other arms attempt to attack El but she stops them and severs them like the previous arm. Suddenly, the Mind Flayer breaks through the roof of the cabin. It manages to grab El by her left ankle in an attempt to take her, but Mike, Jonathan, Max, and Will grab her to prevent her from being taken. Nancy reloads the shotgun and shoots the Mind Flayer in rapid succession, but to no avail. Lucas then severs the arm with the axe and frees El, causing them all to fall to the floor. Mike then pulls the remaining flesh off of El's leg, causing her to scream in pain.

El eventually stands up and severs the head of the Mind Flayer, and then falls backwards into Mike's arms, her left leg bleeding profusely. The group then flees into Nancy's car and drives away, with Max and Mike helping to get El out of the cabin and to the car safely. Back at the Mall, Dustin's group manages to escape from the security guards that are chasing them and they end up in a theater that is showing Back to the Future. Steve and Robin are seated in the front row by Dustin and Erica and told not to move while they sit on the opposite side of the row and discuss what to do with Steve and Robin. Dustin then leaves the theater in an attempt to find a way out without alerting the guards.

Meanwhile, Joyce, Hopper, Murray, and Alexei are driving to the Fun Fair in an attempt to find the kids. Alexei continues to explain to Murray how they will able to destroy the machine that is attempting to open The Gate. He tells them that only way to retrieve the two keys is to enter Planck's Constant into a vault located beneath Starcourt. Hopper and Joyce then get into argument about the military's role in their plan. Murray then breaks up their fight by encouraging them to explore their true feelings for one another. When Alexei asks what he had just said, Murray tells him that they had not had sex, and the two laugh hysterically as the group crosses the state line into Indiana.

Eleven's group eventually reaches a hardware store, breaking the windows of the store in order to find treatment for El's badly wounded leg. Max instructs Nancy and Jonathan to go find water and soap, and for Lucas and Will to go find a washcloth and a bowl. Nancy and Jonathan discuss the Flayed and the consequences of killing the Mind Flayer, while Lucas and Will find fireworks that could potentially help them defeat the Mind Flayer later on. Mike apologizes to El for being selfish, before being interrupted by Dustin attempting to communicate with them via radio. Dustin apologizes to Mike for being MIA and tells him that the Russians have infiltrated Hawkins, before his radio dies due to being out of battery. Dustin returns to Erica and asks if she has any batteries, but Erica says she does not. The two then realize that Steve and Robin have left the theater.

Steve and Robin stand outside in the hallway with Steve drinking from a water fountain. Robin pushes Steve away and Steve becomes dizzy after staring at the ceiling for too long. Steve calls Robin over and she also becomes dizzy from staring at the ceiling. The two then run into the bathroom and throw up. At the Fun Fair, Joyce and Hopper go to check it out, while Hopper instructs Murray and Alexei to remain in the car. Joyce and Hopper are spotted by Kline, who alerts the Russians that they are there.

Back at the hardware store, El attempts to find where Dustin is, but is distracted by Mike and Lucas arguing about New Coke. She determines that Dustin is at the movies and the group leaves to go to Starcourt Mall. Steve and Robin talk in the bathroom, and Steve admits that he has feelings for her. However, Robin admits to Steve that she is a lesbian before Dustin and Erica find them in the bathroom.

At the hardware store, Billy finds Eleven's blood on the floor, and determines that they have gone to the mall. At the Fun Fair, Alexei asks Murray how to become a U.S. citizen, and Murray tells him he doesn't have to be a citizen to join in the fun. They go into the fair, and Murray buys Alexei fifteen tickets to go play a game and then goes to get food for them. Joyce spots Karen going into one of the rides, and she and Hopper go to ask her where the kids are. At the theater, the showing of Back to the Future concludes and the crowd exits. Dustin's group attempts to blend in with the crowd but are spotted by the Russians and forced to flee.

At the fair, Alexei wins the game and gets a giant stuffed Woody Woodpecker as a prize. As Alexei is walking back to Murray, Grigori shows up and fatally shoots Alexei in the chest. Murray goes to warn Hopper and Joyce, and they are forced to flee. Hopper tells Joyce to go get Murray and bring the car to the back, while he goes to the Big Top attraction and evacuates it before going inside. Hopper then beats up one of the Russians while Joyce and Murray discover that Alexei has succumbed to his injuries. Grigori then enters the ride Hopper is hiding in and finds the unconscious Russian on the floor. As Joyce and Murray leave, Joyce finds Kline and punches and kicks him for revealing their location. Hopper shoots Grigori and flees. Grigori was wearing a bulletproof vest so he survived. They learn that the Russians are after the kids via a radio that Hopper stole from the Russian he knocked unconscious.

At the mall, Dustin's group attempts to hide from the Russians, but they are discovered. Suddenly, the car on display nearby begins to honk, distracting the guards long enough so that El can fling the car towards them, knocking them all out. Dustin's group is initially confused, until they look up and see that Eleven's group has arrived just in time to save them. The two groups reunite and discuss what has happened, before Eleven collapses to the floor, her wound pulsating with a strange growth inside her leg causing her to scream in pain.

Cast

• Joyce Byers - Winona Ryder
• Jim Hopper - David Harbour
• Mike Wheeler - Finn Wolfhard
• Eleven - Millie Bobby Brown
• Dustin Henderson - Gaten Matarazzo
• Lucas Sinclair - Caleb McLaughlin
• Will Byers - Noah Schnapp
• Max Mayfield - Sadie Sink
• Nancy Wheeler - Natalia Dyer
• Jonathan Byers - Charlie Heaton
• Steve Harrington - Joe Keery
• Robin - Maya Hawke
• Billy Hargrove - Dacre Montgomery
• Karen Wheeler - Cara Buono
• Erica Sinclair - Priah Ferguson
• Mayor Kline - Cary Elwes
• Murray Bauman - Brett Gelman
• Ted Wheeler - Joe Chrest
• Holly Wheeler - Anniston and Tinsley Price
• Grigori - Andrey Ivchenko
• Alexei - Alec Utgoff

Music

Soundtrack

• "R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A." by John Mellencamp - At Mayor Kline's 4th of July fair.

Original Score

• "The Ceiling Is Beautiful" - Intoxicated Steve and Robin stare at the ceiling.
• "You're a Fighter" - Steve and Robin talk in the bathroom stall.
• "Blank Makes You Crazy" - Mike talks to Eleven in the Big Buy aisle.

Notes

• On December 9, 2018, a teaser trailer for the third season was published across social media, listing the titles of the eight episodes, the seventh of which was "The Bite".