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This chapter is about finding Will’s body in the quarry, but it’s also when the boys put Eleven in a dress and wig, and the police interrogate Nancy . It’s interesting that bodies get so much focus, but the only “body” that counts is both male and presumed dead. Bodies are important in the other seasons, too: the mindflayer possesses Will’s body in season two and Billy’s is going to “host” next season.
They say the word “body” six times, always in reference to fake Will. The police locate a facsimile for him, so everyone assumes he’s dead. There is no further investigation into the body’s authenticity, though Joyce asks about birth marks on his arm when she visits the morgue.
A telling detail is that the episode begins AFTER they find The Body at the quarry. Finding it is not the central drama of the episode.
A parallel between Will and Barb: the police have one body, and not the other. In both cases, the conclusions drawn are wrong.
Mrs. Wheeler is less concerned by Mike’s dead friend and Nancy’s missing friend than with Nancy, who is home safe but had sex with Steve. (misusing the body). Nancy’s lie to the police is irrelevant — what she did or didn’t do with her body has nothing to do with this investigation. Yet everyone fixates on her relationship with Steve rather than Barb — the one that actually matters and can help them solve the case. Once the police decide she lied to them about her sex life, they disregard the rest of her testimony.
