(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Urban legend or not, everyone knows the story of the mother who lifts a car to save her child pinned beneath it. But did you hear the one about the woman who fights tooth and nail to protect her daughter, armed with only a broken wine bottle against a terrifying monster from another dimension?
Power comes in different forms in Stranger Things, and only a few are blessed (or cursed) with abilities like telekinesis. Karen Wheeler’s (Cara Buono) specialty up to this point is being blissfully unaware of the increasingly bizarre events occurring in Hawkins, Indiana. White wine is crucial to maintaining that cluelessness. Unlike Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), Karen and her husband, Ted (Joe Crest), are not privy to their kids’ extracurricular activities.
Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are not big on sharing anything with their parents, especially the schemes they’ve been cooking up in the basement and beyond. Now, their youngest sibling, Holly (Nell Fisher), is directly targeted in the ongoing battle with Vecna, aka Henry Kreel, aka Mr. Whatsit (Jamie Campbell Bower).
When Holly is placed in the firing line, the Wheeler parents finally see up close what their children have been battling. It is about damn time.
In the first four episodes of the final season, the Duffer Brothers finally give Cara Buono something to do beyond comic relief. Unlike the volume of booze Karen consumes, the Emmy-nominated actress has been underserved in the plotting stakes. It has taken nearly a decade since Stranger Things debuted for Buono to showcase Karen’s formidable spirit.
Even before learning of the dangers lurking in this town, Karen gives her children pertinent advice that now reads as foreshadowing—namely, telling Nancy in the third season that she’s a fighter. “I honestly don’t know where you get it from,” Karen says. After jokingly suggesting it is from her dad, Nancy tells her mother that she gets it from her. Nancy is right. That this conversation takes place in the family kitchen also speaks to the full-circle nature of Karen’s fearlessness. (It is notable that when the Demogorgon bursts through Holly’s ceiling, she cries out for her mother—sorry, Ted!)
Buono is a master of serving obliviousness infused with tipsyness, but to see her go toe-to-toe with a Demogorgon is as overdue as it is welcome. While Karen ultimately loses this fight, it goes down as one of the most heroic moments across the entire series. She doesn’t even waste any wine in the process, because she’s already finished this bottle.
Given the alcohol Karen consumes pre-bath (and pre-monster interruption), her inhibitions are low. (Ted asks if she is onto “number two” already, and it is unclear if he means bottle or glass.) The way she stands tall against the towering monster is commendable, even if it almost kills her. A sober Karen might have continued playing the hiding game, which would have been equally futile. Instead, she channels her inner Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from Aliens, screaming, “Stay away from my daughter!”
Sometimes the overt nods like that to pop culture can induce a little eye roll, but Buono’s ferocious delivery sidesteps any kind of cringe over that Alien reference that might bubble to the surface. I also think Karen would stab an xenomorph with a wine bottle if the Alien: Earth creative team needed any ideas for their second season.
Before the Demogorgon transforms the Wheeler home into an open-plan concept they don’t want, Holly overhears her parents talking about what they think is Holly’s imaginary friend. The conversation quickly turns from concern about their daughter into cruel jabs at each other. Ted goes outside to hit golf balls, and Karen drains the dregs of the bottle that will later become a weapon and then heads upstairs to take a bath.
Even if they survive the final season, it seems unlikely that this marriage will go the distance.
Having Karen be this clueless is an ’80s movie trope, which is why it is satisfying when it is finally subverted. After all, the Wheeler siblings do get their bravery from somewhere. While Nancy is right that Karen is the source, some credit also goes to Ted, who returns to the house when everything is going to hell. The Demogorgon makes quick work of the golf club that Ted is brandishing, with each parent turning to the thing they love as ammunition or self-defense.
For someone who regularly drinks this much, it means a certain tolerance or baseline. Regardless, Karen still slurs her words a little when Holly first bursts into her mom’s bathroom, yelling about the monster in her room.
Drunk acting is an art, particularly not playing overly hammered. Buono’s slight laboring on the motherly reassurance is a reminder that Karen is far from sober, but also very good at trying to hide how inebriated she is from her kids. An actual monster in the house is one way to lose that white-wine-wasted edge quickly.
The kitchen is the scene of the final fight, but the relaxing bath Karen was running provides a brief sanctuary for mother and daughter to hide beneath the bubbles. Even if the final season’s pacing lags at times, this watery sequence is Stranger Things at its edge-of-the-seat best.
But this is just the prelude to the showdown in which Karen doesn’t behave like a woman wearing a soaking wet nightgown with makeup smeared down her face. Instead, she comes across as armored; her streaked mascara is war paint. Buono grabs this scene with both hands, clearly relishing this opportunity to play in the monster sandbox.
Karen stabs the Demogorgon repeatedly, and for a second, I thought she might win. Alas, this is not a car that needs to be moved from atop a child. At least Karen doesn’t die and there is room in this rag-tag group for a wine mom who will do anything to save her family.
