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This episode is unique

in the sense that it's going from the very beginning.

There's a little bit more engine behind it, a lot happens.

I remember reading episode 6, even in outline form,

and I was like,

"I don't know what poor sucker of a director's gonna direct that one."

Wow.

Because there's like, five different action sequences.

But what's even more exceptional

is it also has truly great character scenes.

Something's coming.

Now, at last, it is time.

We open episode 6 with Nancy's smoking shotgun

and the disturbance of that sphere

sets up shockwaves

that impact every reach of the Upside Down.

-Maybe we should… -Yeah.

The gate!

I can clear a path!

No!

We're going to be pushed into the rift behind us,

which means, we're screwed.

So, I kind of create a force field around Kali, Hopper, and I.

They've trained for years. We see this at the beginning of the season,

that she's finally able to put this training to use in the real world.

Go!

I loved it, actually, I thought it was so much fun.

In three, two, one, overhead,

and wham!

It feels like you're just making a blockbuster movie.

It's just epic.

Cut!

Goal!

That was so fun!

Working with Shawn is so fun.

We have more of like a father-daughter relationship,

and I truly will miss the energy that he brings to set.

And the relationship just meant a lot to me growing up

and it still does now.

When the sphere is disturbed,

Jonathan and Nancy see the melted building,

this grey-like sludge, rising and rising.

Holy shit!

And they assume, understandably, that that's the end.

And they end up having a scene

filled with a level of honesty

that is an all-timer of a Jonathan/Nancy scene.

I tried to convince myself

that this would somehow fix everything.

But it was just gonna make things worse.

It was the last scene that we shoot together

as Jonathan and Nancy, as the two characters.

We wanted to make sure that we were so familiar with it

that we didn't have to think about it,

because there's so much truth going on in this scene,

so we, like, mechanically just kind of went through the scene,

like literally beat-by-beat for a good month.

I love you, Nancy Wheeler.

I love you, Jonathan Byers.

And then that was just about me and Natalia just

kind of focusing on each other and trying to block everything out

and just try and be as honest as we could be with the scene

and the emotion of it.

Our characters have always been kind of, you know, paired together

and I think having last season where they weren't together,

coming back and having a scene like that

was really nice for our characters.

One of the most difficult concepts

we had to figure out how to make physical

was the Hawkins lab melting from the top-down.

We never sculpted anything quite like that,

quite at that scale,

and we knew we wanted it to feel like organic melting

but also supernatural.

It's a lot of goo.

We had 3,000-gallon tanks of goo.

We had about 1,500 feet of piping

going around the set just to deliver it, you know, on cue.

Physically, I had no idea what we were going into.

They were like, "Yeah, melting." And it's like, "Okay."

There's 30 of these all the way around the set.

And these, once you pull them open,

they fill these troughs here,

and this trough has a little slit in the front.

That's where the goo will just flow down the walls.

We couldn't keep it running constantly down the walls.

That's gonna fill up the set.

The bottom needs to be at a certain level so like…

…one. Action!

…Levy calls action, we turn everything on,

it starts pouring, they call cut, we turn it off.

Three, two, one, goo flow.

Get back.

It was probably one of the harder things

I've had to do on the show because it's never been done.

Who's ever been in a melty goo-room?

We did many tests within our department and special effects

and we worked with like a paint that would kind of stick longer,

and then we'd have to flake that off.

It was a big challenge.

They would have to come to the side,

and we had color bottles of the goo,

and we would just spray it onto their hair.

Get to the table!

Cut! Big win for special effects!

Working with Shawn in that scene was really nice,

he really guided us through that and gave us what we needed.

Honestly, it's some of my favorite days I've had filming

even though it was hard and like we were just soaking wet

and freezing.

But I think it's fun to be physically challenged

and it kind of just adds to the energy of that scene.

That week felt really like a collaborative community,

trying to work with what we were trying to get done.

I'm so glad that these characters got that moment,

that whole week of shooting was such a joy.

Steve, what the hell are you doing? That's never going to work. Stop.

-You also have the relationship… -Steve, stop!

…with Steve and Dustin

come to a level of honesty that we haven't seen there as well.

That is unique and beautiful, and deeply moving.

Stop being an asshole!

That relationship is an interesting one.

A lot of the fuel for my character I think is just like my worry for him

and how that might come off.

You're gonna die, I can't deal with it again.

You can't die because I can't deal with it again.

It's kind of the one part of the season that I had been anticipating,

sometimes dreading,

sometimes looking forward to over the course of the year.

And I think it was really fun to dig into with Joe.

I can't let it happen again, please.

Please don't let it happen again.

Not you.

I'm sorry.

No.

So I think it's been earned over a long time of like fun banter

and a season that's been building up where we're at odds consistently.

Kind of a needed moment between the two of them

where they could actually like verbally express to each other

what they wanted to say for a long time.

It's cool to let those boundaries break down and explore that.

It was really fun. It was cool.

That was fun to film because I was in that same place

where I got saved in Season 1, in that library basement,

in that same cocoon.

Will!

So it was so nostalgic for me to step back in there and film there.

Do you remember this place?

And, you know, working with Jamie/Vecna,

which I hadn't done until this year

is such a cool experience.

It just helps me so much,

it makes my job so easy

if I can work off someone who's so amazing

and makes it so real.

And I am genuinely terrified of him when he gets in his character.

Found you.

Save your junkie breath.

The Demo-dogs are coming

and there's nothing I can do about it but run.

And, in this moment, in Lucas's head,

this time he's gonna get her out of there.

The last time she was unconscious, he effed up.

This time he's like, "I'm going to carry her out of here."

Ready? And, come on, action!

C'mon, running.

Button! Kick!

Caleb is really strong.

He had to carry me for a really long time, run with me.

Like that's just insane, and the boom box as well.

There's just so many moving parts, but Caleb did such a good job.

Jesus!

Honestly, that might be one of my favorites scenes

I filmed on the show.

This way guys, c'mon.

Even though we're still hidden, it's a really sweet moment of,

"I'm with you, you've got me, that's all I need to know."

All my work at the hospital was extremely fun,

I loved doing all of that work with Vickie

and it was just really great.

It's beautiful, it's like these two couples,

but one couple doesn't know that the other two people are a couple.

It's fun when you're doing a big action sequence

to have it be so brimming with emotional stakes

and this unlikely double date of chaos.

The set was inside a practical location in a real building,

so everything that we did was all high-pressured air blast.

Three, two, one, go!

All the debris and all that you see coming out

was all practical effects.

Two, one, go!

And, of course, Karen Wheeler's epic moment.

My favorite stage direction ever in a script:

Karen. Dot. Fucking. Dot. Wheeler.

"The room is on fire

and the dogs are scattered about in charred pieces."

"Dead. Very, very dead."

"Then, out of the curtain of black smoke, a figure…

Karen. Fucking. Wheeler."

I hadn't really acted with the other cast in this capacity

where I was part of the action.

It was just really fun. It was fun.

Are you ready?

We're ready out here.

-Roll cameras. -Rolling, we're rolling.

Three, two, one, action.

To go in there, push the doors open,

the hero music comes on,

it's like the ultimate inner-kid in me

who's pretending and gets to play

and it's like, "Wow, someone created this thing for me to play in."

It was fun to watch the reaction of the other cast.

Oh my God, she's the coolest woman in the whole world.

That was so great. I mean, I love her journey this season.

It's such an awesome moment for her.

"Those bitches couldn't take the heat."

That's my new line.

With that scene, the writing was so good,

and Nell's performance was so good,

and that moment between them is so special

because they've obviously had such an intense journey together.

So, you see, Holly Heroic is not just a toy.

She's you, Holly.

To kind of pause at such a climactic point

and have Max express to Holly

everything that she's picked up on about her

and give her that little pep talk,

it meant a lot.

I'll see you on the other side.

On the other side.