The Best Part of ‘Stranger Things’ Season 3 is that Bonkers ‘NeverEnding Story’ Moment

Just when Stranger Things Season 3 got darker when ever before — just as it seemed that the Mind Flayer might actually win — the show cut away from the high stakes action and gave us its most bonkers moment yet.

Right in the middle of Stranger Things Season 3, Episode 8, “The Battle of Starcourt,” the action gets put on hold for a hilarious homage to The NeverEnding Story. It was an explosion of innocence in the midst of incredible terror, and it also marked a huge creative step forward for Stranger Things itself.

**SPOILERS FOR STRANGER THINGS 3 AHEAD***

The headiest moment for our heroes comes when Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder) have successfully snuck into the Russian base hidden beneath the Starcourt — but they can’t open an all-important safe because they have the wrong number for Planck’s constant. Alexei (Alec Utgoff) is dead, so he can’t help, and Murray (Brett Gelman) has already gotten it wrong. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) doesn’t know Planck’s constant, but he knows someone who does.

All summer long, he’s been bragging about his perfect girlfriend Suzie. She’s cuter than Phoebe Cates, and smarter than he is. Everything about her is so elusive and wonderful, most of the characters think she’s a figment of Dustin’s imagination — a story he’s sharing to seem less lame.

But Suzie is very real. It turns out that she is an adorkable brunette in Salt Lake City played by Broadway phenom Gabriella Pizzolo. The 16-year-old Pizzolo has starred on stage in Fun Home and Matilda, and played a pint-sized Idina Menzel in the remake of Beaches.

Suzie takes the nerd quotient on Stranger Things to a whole new level. Her bedroom is full of radio gear, telescopes, science tomes, and posters for The Wizard of Oz and The Muppet Movie. (Oh, and what’s that? Dustin’s red, white, and blue baseball cap is on her nightstand?) When we meet her, she’s in the middle of Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and she’s mad at Dustin for not radio-ing her sooner. The feisty teen holds Dustin — and the world — hostage by refusing to share Planck’s constant unless she hears “it.”

“It” is the theme song to the 1984 cult fantasy classic The NeverEnding Story.

Dustin reluctantly obliges, knowing that everyone can hear him croon this super corny, super sweet, and utterly guileless song to his beloved. The ballad soon becomes a dazzling duet that breaks the fourth wall. Dustin and Suzie are shown in split-screen while synth music backs them up. The moment is hilariously undercut with shots of everyone’s reactions. Steve and Robin are charmed, while Joyce and Hopper are about to lose their minds.

It is an incredible moment for Stranger Things. Dustin and Suzie’s duet is not just another homage to ’80s genre storytelling, but it is an outrageously absurd comedy set piece — the likes of which we’ve never seen before in the series. Sure, Stranger Things has had its jokes. The rhythm of the show is now more sitcom than thriller; but this is next level. Up until now, Stranger Things has actually done its best to feel like an in-period adventure. Season 1 felt like some kind of relic of the early ’80s, and Season 2 winked at the audience, but never broke that fourth wall. The NeverEnding Story musical number has a modern flair to it that feels born of contemporary comedy. That is, this moment is Stranger Things being Stranger Things, not just Stranger Things riffing on something from the past.

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