'The Flea and the Acrobat' is filled with plenty of the show's typically great sequences: Hopper not allowing himself to be fooled by the government and subsequently telling Joyce she was right all along, Scott being such a great guy helping out the kids with a nice expository lesson, memorable visuals of the black "bath" void Eleven enters (akin to "Under the Skin"), Steve having a nice little redemptive scene, and Nancy and Jonathan have a great bonding scene together when training with the revolver (helping us get more of an insight into Nancy's family history).
However, there's still some minor choppy/inconsistent editing at times (Steve showing up out of nowhere in Nancy's garage, the deer being pulled into the bushes also out of nowhere?), and a lot of the drama in the final act feels a tad forced. Lonnie's "betrayal" makes sense but it is just a rather unnecessary minor setback for Joyce in the grand scheme of things, Lucas getting enraged at Eleven neither feels earned or warranted (it basically just relies on him being a total ignorant prick despite everything Eleven has done. His new plan is just to piss off the girl with superpowers and walk off to who knows where?), Jonathan and Nancy's argument just needlessly comes out of nowhere (they're both being rather annoying in this circumstance, particularly Jonathan, so it kills a lot of potential chemistry they may have had), and Nancy going into the tree alone without Jonathan is just stupid. I mean, come on, yeah you had a little squabble but there's also a faceless monster out there! You're really gonna pull this right now?
Anyway, it's still a great episode with some nice progression, but is unfortunately held back by a few elements.
However, there's still some minor choppy/inconsistent editing at times (Steve showing up out of nowhere in Nancy's garage, the deer being pulled into the bushes also out of nowhere?), and a lot of the drama in the final act feels a tad forced. Lonnie's "betrayal" makes sense but it is just a rather unnecessary minor setback for Joyce in the grand scheme of things, Lucas getting enraged at Eleven neither feels earned or warranted (it basically just relies on him being a total ignorant prick despite everything Eleven has done. His new plan is just to piss off the girl with superpowers and walk off to who knows where?), Jonathan and Nancy's argument just needlessly comes out of nowhere (they're both being rather annoying in this circumstance, particularly Jonathan, so it kills a lot of potential chemistry they may have had), and Nancy going into the tree alone without Jonathan is just stupid. I mean, come on, yeah you had a little squabble but there's also a faceless monster out there! You're really gonna pull this right now?
Anyway, it's still a great episode with some nice progression, but is unfortunately held back by a few elements.