- Lucas Sinclair: [while following the compasses along the train tracks] How much further?
- Dustin Henderson: I don't know. These only tell direction, not distance. You really need to learn more about compasses!
- Lucas Sinclair: I'm just saying: how do we know when we get to the gate?
- Dustin Henderson: Uh, I think a portal to another dimension is gonna be pretty obvious!
- Nancy Wheeler: You know, I was actually starting to think that you were okay.
- Jonathan Byers: Yeah?
- Nancy Wheeler: Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking, "Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is."
- Jonathan Byers: Well, I was just starting to think you were okay.
- Nancy Wheeler: Oh.
- Jonathan Byers: I was thinking, "Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does, until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and they live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac. Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now, hey, they get it."
- Mike Wheeler: What was Will saying? "Like home... like home... but dark"?
- Lucas Sinclair: And empty.
- Dustin Henderson: Empty and cold... wait, did he say cold?
- Lucas Sinclair: I don't know- the stupid radio kept going in and out.
- Dustin Henderson: It's like riddles in the dark.
- Mike Wheeler: "Like home"... like his house?
- Lucas Sinclair: Or maybe like Hawkins!
- Eleven: Upside down...
- Lucas Sinclair: What'd she say?
- Mike Wheeler: Upside down...
- Lucas Sinclair: What?
- Mike Wheeler: Upside down. When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember? Upside down: dark, empty.
- Lucas Sinclair: Do you understand what he's talking about?
- Dustin Henderson: No.
- Mike Wheeler: Guys, come on, just think about it: when El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?
- Lucas Sinclair: Yeah and he wasn't there.
- Mike Wheeler: But what if he was there? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?
- [flips the game board right side up]
- Mike Wheeler: What if this is Hawkins...
- [flips it right side down]
- Mike Wheeler: ... and this is where Will is? The upside down.
- Dustin Henderson: Like the Vale of Shadows.
- Jonathan Byers: Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He is in the vast majority.
- Mike Wheeler: [watching Dusting pace back and forth with a compass in front of him] Dustin, what are you doing? Dustin? Dustin!
- Lucas Sinclair: Dustin!
- Dustin Henderson: I need to see your compasses.
- Mike Wheeler: What?
- Dustin Henderson: Your compasses, all of your compasses. Right now!
- Mike Wheeler: [presenting their compasses on the table] What's exciting about this?
- Dustin Henderson: Well, they're all facing North, right?
- Lucas Sinclair: Yeah, so?
- Dustin Henderson: Well, that's not true North.
- Mike Wheeler: What do you mean?
- Dustin Henderson: I mean exactly what I just said. That's not true North. Are you both seriously this dense? The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, right? Which means
- [pointing]
- Dustin Henderson: *that's* true North.
- Mike Wheeler: So, what you're saying is the compasses are broken?
- Dustin Henderson: Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?
- Mike Wheeler: No.
- Dustin Henderson: No, you don't, because it doesn't need one. The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole.
- Lucas Sinclair: So what's wrong with it?
- Dustin Henderson: Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered: you can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's a presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remembered what Mr Clarke said: the gate would have so much power...
- Mike Wheeler: -disrupt the electromagnetic field.
- Dustin Henderson: Exactly.
- Lucas Sinclair: Meaning if we follow the compasses North...?
- Dustin Henderson: They should lead us to the gate.
- Joyce Byers: Maybe I am a mess. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm out of my mind! But, God help me, I will keep these lights up until the day I die if I think there's a chance that Will's still out there!