“And I told you to eat your damn pie.” Heard, chef!

Episode 3 of Stranger Things 5 serves up some delectable comedy when Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) drops by the Turnbow family home armed with crocodile tears and a homemade pie under the guise of making amends with her estranged friend Tina (Caroline Elle Abrams).

It’s all a ruse to help our heroes abduct the unsuspecting family to protect Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly), Vecna’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) next target, from the Demogorgon sent after him. So when Tina refuses to eat the spiked dessert, Erica takes drastic measures — stabbing her schoolmate in the neck with a syringe — in a moment that has left many Stranger Things fans in stitches. 

“I burst out laughing when Erica took out the syringe,” wrote one viewer in a Reddit thread titled “Erica is such an icon.” Another noted, “I spat my popcorn out when she did that.”

On Instagram, fans noted that Erica “ate and left no crumbs” and “cleared all of [the Turnbows]” in that scene. 

Ferguson recalls the unforgettable pie moment as “a really fun scene to shoot,” even though playing up the emotional nature of it “was a little hard.”

“I had to think about Erica’s motive and prepare for it. Whenever it’s an emotional scene, I like to tap into what the character’s motive is so it comes off more natural, because it’s hard to just cry on the spot.”

From Vol. 1, which is now streaming on Netflix, the episode is directed by renowned filmmaker Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption), whom Ferguson calls a “great and affirming director.”

“I know that this is a business, so it’s hard for directors to sometimes stop and say, ‘You’re doing good,’ because filming schedules move so fast,” she says. “But working with Frank and seeing how humble he is, how he affirms everyone on set and tells them that they’re doing a great job, even though you might already know you did a scene well — it’s just good to hear that from the top person.”

PHOTO BY ANDREW COOPER

Erica’s sharp one-liners aren’t just a favorite among fans: Ferguson also enjoys her character’s iconic verbal smackdowns. When asked about her favorite Erica comeback during the Stranger Things world premiere transmission on Nov. 6, Ferguson cited “You bald bastard” from the Season 3 finale, “The Battle of Starcourt.” It’s what Erica calls Murray (Brett Gelman) after he dismisses her as a 4-year-old. 

“She’s not 4. He was trying to play with her age. She’s 10,” Ferguson said of the regularly quoted jab. “She’s in double digits.”

The first four episodes of Stranger Things 5 are streaming now on Netflix, followed by three more episodes on Christmas Day, and The Finale on New Year’s Eve. Find out when new episodes arrive in your part of the world here. And test your knowledge of Stranger Things with our superfan quiz.