Your Complete ‘Stranger Things’ Seasons 1-4 Guide: Recapping Every Episode
Attention, nerds: If you haven’t started your Stranger Things full series rewatch before catching the final episodes on Netflix, now is your chance. And we highly recommend refreshing your knowledge on all of Hawkins’ happenings; show creators Matt and Ross Duffer have already announced there will be lots of callbacks in this fifth and final round. Plus, why wouldn’t you want to relive the magic and mayhem?
From the first few minutes of Stranger Things, where an unseen Demogorgon stalks scientists through the halls of Hawkins National Laboratory, nestled in a cozy Indiana town, it was clear that this ’80s-set sci-fi drama would be able to bring big scares and beyond-creepy creatures to the small screen. What surprised us and drew the attention of most folks when Season 1 gained popularity in 2016 was just how much heart was behind the horror.
The lonely Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), on the run after escaping the lab and her evil “Papa,” Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), is immediately taken in by the people of Hawkins. Whether it’s a kind diner owner or Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing pals, as they opened their doors to the powerful young girl, we opened our hearts. From there, it’s been impossible to look away as the citizens of Hawkins face horror after horror, from the predatorial Demogorgons to the terrifying Mind Flayer, all-powerful Vecna, and anything else the Upside Down threw at them. Over the next 34 slides, we break down every major moment through the award-winning series’ first four seasons, episode by episode. It’s the perfect companion piece as you sit down on your couch to rewatch them all in anticipation of the series’ big send-off. Over and out!
Season 1
"Chapter 1: The Vanishing of Will Byers"
It’s nighttime on Sunday, November 6, 1983, in Hawkins, Indiana, at Hawkins National Laboratory. Fluorescent lights flicker, and a scientist is snatched up into the darkness of an elevator by an unseen snarling monster. Elsewhere, a group of four 12-year-old boys—Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo)—are in the middle of a tense Dungeons &Dragons campaign that’s broken up by Dungeon Master Mike’s mom, Karen (Cara Buono). While biking home, Will is chased into his garden shed by a predatorial monster, which we’ll later learn is a humanoid, dimension-jumping Demogorgon. Will and the monster seemingly vanish.
On Monday morning, no one can find Will, and while Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) says that Mondays are for “coffee and contemplation,” it doesn’t stop Will’s anxious mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) from smoking in Hopper’s office and begging the cop to find him. Hopper discovers Will’s abandoned bike and puts a search party together for the missing boy. Viewers learn that the grizzled chief has a haunted past and a dead daughter.
Meanwhile, the Hawkins Lab is under quarantine, and Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) dons a hazmat suit to investigate the carnage left behind when the Demogorgon escaped, and the pulsing portal to the otherworldly realm the Upside Down. Cut to: a barefoot child (Millie Bobby Brown) in a hospital gown who gets caught stealing fries from a diner kitchen. She tells the diner’s owner, Benny Hammond (Chris Sullivan), her name is Eleven. When “social services”—Brenner and his cronies—arrive that night, Benny is shot dead, but Eleven escapes.
The boys launch their own search party for Will in the rain, initiated by Mike, while his older sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) continues a flirtation with high school jock Steve Harrington (Joe Keery). In the final moments, Will attempts to contact Joyce through their landline phone, and the boys come face-to-face with Eleven.
Retro Reference
“I’ve got your X-Men 134!” yells Dustin while they’re traipsing through the wet woods for their missing pal. The 1980 comic, which Will won for beating Dustin in a bike race earlier in the episode, provides significant foreshadowing into Eleven’s story, as it’s when telepathic mutant Jean Gray fully unlocks her powers.
"Chapter 2: The Weirdo on Maple Street"
“Stop it, you’re freaking her out!” shouts Mike. “She’s freaking me out!” returns Lucas. This comedic outburst is just the start of the chaos to come, as a rain-soaked Eleven sits in Mike’s basement being bombarded with questions. Mike brings her an Eggo waffle, nicknames her “El” and lends her his sleeping bag.
At Hawkins High, Steve’s planning a party, but Nancy is more interested in checking in with Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Will’s uncool older brother. In the middle school, Dustin and Lucas are worried Mike’s been busted for harboring El, but really he’s playing hooky to show her his dad’s La-Z-Boy recliner. While Joyce goes out to get a new phone (Will’s call fried hers), Brenner and the scientists investigate their house, finding Demogorgon goop. El freaks out over a picture of Will, but before Mike gets answers, his mom Karen comes home, and he has El hide in his closet. She’s claustrophobic. She flashes back to her “Papa,” Dr. Brenner, having her thrown into a small space, and it’s devastating. What’s also devastating? Hopper seeing his friend Benny, his body posed as if his death were a suicide.
After school, the boys grill Eleven on Will, and she startles everyone with her powers. Later, they apologize for being afraid of her and teach her the meaning of the word “friend.” In return, she tells them Will is hiding from a monster. Nancy drags her BFF Barb (Shannon Purser) to Steve’s house party, and Jonathan hides in the bushes taking pictures.
Joyce has the scare of her life when Will calls back and then fries another phone. Thankfully, she catches on that Will is leading her through the house using the flickering lights. She nearly flees when a Demogorgon tries to break through the wall but is lured back into her home by Will playing the Clash. In the final moments, Barb is alone at Steve’s and is dragged into the Upside Down by the Demogorgon.
Mixtape Moment
“Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by the Clash (from their 1982 album Combat Rock) plays as Jonathan drives to visit his dad Lonnie (Ross Partridge) in the hunt for Will. Jonathan’s mind flashes back to him and Will listening to a mixtape that Jonathan offers to give to his little brother. “All the best stuff’s on there. Joy Division, Bowie, Television, the Smiths,” he says. “It’ll totally change your life.”
"Chapter 3: Holly, Jolly"
A bloodied Barb awakens in the Upside Down. It is viewers’ first real look at the parallel universe, which appears to be a distorted, decaying mirror version of Hawkins. Interspersed with shots of Steve and Nancy hooking up, we see Barb pulled back by the snarling Demogorgon while screaming for her friend.
The next morning, Jonathan wakes up when he hears his mother calling for Will. Joyce has surrounded herself with lamps and other lights. Jonathan tries to shake some sense into her, but it doesn’t work. At school, Nancy realizes Barb is missing but doesn’t see that something is really wrong until she finds Barb’s car, still parked on Steve’s street. El watches TV while the Wheelers are out of the house and stumbles on a Coca-Cola ad, rousing another bad memory of her powers being tested by Brenner. Joyce, meanwhile, drags out the Christmas lights to contact Will. Hopper, too, is making progress, as he visits Hawkins Lab and becomes suspicious of the goings-on there. He’s on to something: Brenner is planning an expedition into the Upside Down. Hopper heads to the library to read up on the lab’s sordid past—and Brenner’s.
Meanwhile, the boys are launching “Operation Mirkwood” after school, and El is tasked with meeting them. As she waits, we see more flashbacks of her time with Brenner, and the lengths to which the young girl has been pushed, including murder. Joyce’s Christmas-lights plan works, and Will tells her he’s alive…but not safe. She takes it a step further and paints a makeshift Ouija board on her living room wall. Nancy—after seeing a Demogorgon—finally tells her mom about Barb. But it’s all too late when Hopper is called to the quarry and Will’s body is found.
Mixtape Moment
Peter Gabriel‘s cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” (from his 2010 album Scratch My Back) is the perfect haunting track, just as all comes crashing down around the residents of Hawkins. While Will’s body is pulled from the water, Mike yells at El and rides home to hug his mom. Joyce and Jonathan embrace. All hope is lost, but the love in this small town isn’t.
"Chapter 4: The Body"
Joyce is in shock, and denial, as Hopper tries to convince her they’ve really found Will. He even brings up his own child. “After Sarah, I saw her too,” he admits. “I didn’t know what was real.” It doesn’t work. Joyce busts into her garden shed, grabs an axe and plops back down on her couch waiting for further contact from her son. Mike is also broken up by the news and feels betrayed by Eleven for giving him false hope. But then El plays with his radio and finds Will singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” and Mike immediately tries to talk to his best friend. He’s met with static.
Joyce and Jonathan agree to see Will’s body at the morgue. Hopper’s there and learns that “someone from state” did the autopsy. Joyce refuses to believe the body is Will’s. Mike’s also pulling his friends into the mystery and insists that El needs a bigger radio to channel Will. So they dress her up and break her into school for the AV club’s supplies.
Nancy continues to search for answers about Barb, and her quest leads her right to Jonathan. Nancy’s story corroborates what Joyce has been saying. While Hopper follows his own leads and discovers that Will’s body is a fake, Joyce tries to lure Will into talking to her. She finally comes face-to-face, through the veil of the Upside Down, with Will, and he tells her where he is: “It’s like home, but it’s so dark and empty.”
Retro Reference
When Hopper busts back into the autopsy space to see Will’s body, he must get past a guard first. That state trooper (played by Ron Fallica) is reading a first-edition hardcover of Stephen King’s Cujo, which came out in 1981. “I love that book,” Hopper says. “It’s a nasty mutt.”
"Chapter 5: The Flea and the Acrobat"
Hopper starts this installment off with some light B&E as he busts into Hawkins Lab. He’s searching for Will, but what he finds is even more haunting: the cell of a room that Eleven was raised in. He makes it all the way to the Upside Down gate before being apprehended.
The boys, meanwhile, start figuring out the Upside Down, likening it to Dungeons & Dragons’ Vale of Shadows, an echo of our world. Will’s funeral happens, and Hopper misses it. He’s been drugged and returned home by Brenner’s people. After Will’s funeral, science teacher Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens) teaches the boys about parallel universes. That convo leads Dustin to realize that the local magnetic field is off and that they can use compasses to lead them to the gate to the Upside Down.
Steve apologizes to Nancy, and Joyce and ex Lonnie get into a big fight when he suggests they sue the owners of the quarry for Will’s death. Nancy learns she’s a pretty good shot with a gun. But she might be too late. The boys and Eleven are on their way to the gate. Eleven begs Mike to turn back. We see pieces of her memories with Brenner—using a sensory deprivation tank to access her remote viewing powers and spy on Russians—and know things are about to get a lot worse. When the boys don’t listen to her in the present day, she messes with their compasses. When they figure it out, Lucas and Mike brawl. Eleven hurls Lucas across the junkyard and runs.
A panicked Hopper visits Joyce and tells her that she was right all along about the lab. Elsewhere, Nancy and Jonathan are hunting the monster and come across a dying deer. It’s snatched away. Nancy crosses through a rift in a tree trunk into the Upside Down and sees the Demogorgon feeding on the deer.
Retro Reference
When Steve apologizes to Nancy—he didn’t want Nancy to go to the cops about Barb in case the investigation got him in trouble for their backyard beer party—he asks her to see a movie to “pretend everything is normal for a few hours.” All the Right Moves is still playing. “You know, with your lover boy from Risky Business?” he asks, referring to Nancy’s bedroom poster of Tom Cruise. Then he starts singing Bob Seger‘s “Old Time Rock & Roll.”
"Chapter 6: The Monster"
From the hunter to the hunted: Nancy is being stalked by the Demogorgon in the Upside Down in this episode’s harrowing opening scene. Jonathan is trying to tell Nancy to follow his voice from the other side of the rift in the woods. It works—and she finds the right tree trunk, escaping. Jonathan takes her home, but Steve, going to check on Nancy, spies him comforting Nancy in her bedroom. The unnerved Nancy asks Jonathan to stay the night.
Joyce and Hopper begin putting the pieces together about Eleven. “What if this whole time I’ve been looking for Will, I’ve been chasing after some other kid?” Hopper asks. He and Joyce follow a lead that sends them after Eleven’s real mother, Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins), who participated in Brenner’s Project MKUltra experiments when she was pregnant. But Terry is catatonic and won’t talk.
Meanwhile, the boys are still fighting. Eleven is alone, shoplifting boxes of Eggos and having flashbacks to the first time she contacted a Demogorgon in the Void and opened the gate in Hawkins Lab. Lucas goes after the gate solo. Jonathan and Steve get into an alleyway brawl and Jonathan is brought in by Hawkins police. Dustin and Mike, looking for Eleven, get stopped by bullies Troy Walsh (Peyton Wich) and James Dante (Cade Jones) but are rescued by their telekinetic pal. In the final moments, El admits that she opened the gate. “I’m the monster,” she tells Mike. But he assures her that she isn’t and the trio hug. Mike brings El back to the Wheeler house, but Brenner’s team is also heading their way.
Mixtape Moment
While Steve’s driving his first-generation BMW 7 Series with troublemaking buddies Tommy (Chester Rushing) and Carol (Chelsea Talmadge) to see Nancy, Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” (from his 1983 debut album First Offense) is blaring. We honestly couldn’t think of a better anthem for the young Harrington.
"Chapter 7: The Bathtub"
In the opening seconds, Mike and Eleven have a moment — a near kiss — before Dustin busts in telling them he thinks that Lucas is in trouble. Lucas is out of range on the walkie-talkie, but bicycling fast toward the Wheelers shouting “the bad men are coming” for El. A fleet of “Hawkins Power and Light” vans arrive, but the kids are already biking away. A wild chase sequence ensues—El flips a van!—and the kids escape.
Once safe, Lucas apologizes to El for calling her a traitor and shakes hands with Mike. The band is together again. Karen finally goes down into her basement and discovers proof of a girl living there—just as Brenner’s team arrives to search the Wheeler home. Brenner tells Mike’s parents that their son is “in real danger” and to trust him.
Meanwhile, Jonathan and Nancy go to Joyce and Hopper with their Demogorgon findings. Bully Troy comes into the station and tells Hopper about Eleven too. Steve, nursing his wounds from his fight with Jonathan, finally breaks up with his bad friends.
Nancy, Jonathan, Hopper and Joyce radio the kids, and Hopper saves them from being picked up by Brenner’s people in the junkyard. The group forms a new plan: They must build a sensory deprivation tank so El can contact Will and Barb in the Upside Down.
They construct the tank in the school’s gymnasium. A horrified El sees Barb’s decomposing corpse and Will, barely holding on. Joyce comforts the terrified girl—and then leaves with Hopper to find her son. But the two ambitious adults are captured before making it very far into Hawkins Lab. After Joyce and Hopper leave, Nancy tells Jonathan that she wants “to finish what we started” and kill the Demogorgon. In the final moments, Castle Byers, the fort Will is hiding in, is attacked. Are they all too late?
Retro Reference
Science teacher Scott Clarke is on a Saturday-night date with his girlfriend, Jen (Jackie Dallas), when Dustin calls wanting to know how to build a sensory deprivation tank. The movie they’re watching is John Carpenter‘s 1982 horror classic The Thing. “You know how they did that?” Scott asks Jen, referring to the infamous scene where geophysicist Vance Norris’ (Charles Hallahan) head is pulled off. “Melted plastic and microwaved bubble gum.”
"Chapter 8: The Upside Down"
Brenner interrogates Joyce. She and Hopper have been split up after being apprehended at the lab. She tells Brenner to go to hell. Hopper is getting a more violent questioning, but he strikes a deal: They must give him and Joyce everything they need to go into the Upside Down; they’ll save Will and then forget everything. He also promises Brenner he’ll tell him where the girl (Eleven) is after everyone is safe—but it doesn’t look like he intends to keep his word.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan plan to lure the Demogorgon into the Byers’ home, which they’ve booby-trapped. But first, Steve shows up, trying to make things right between him and Jonathan. Soon after, the Demogorgon bursts through the ceiling. It’s chaos, and hilarious, as Steve catches up to what’s really been going on.
In the Upside Down, Joyce and Hopper find Will’s hiding spot decimated—no Will in sight. Hopper’s having flashbacks about his own daughter Sarah and her terminal cancer. Mike and El have another nice moment. He tells her that she can live in his house when all this is over, invites her to the Snow Ball and kisses her. And then Brenner and his army show up. Brenner gets hold of Eleven and is desperate to bring her home.
Alas, the guards Eleven takes out are bleeding all over the floor, and it lures the Demogorgon to the school. El’s burning out, but she fights the Demogorgon. The girl and the beast disappear in a cloud of Upside Down debris.
Joyce and Hopper find Will, but he’s connected to the Demogorgon’s nest. They remove him and give him CPR until he’s revived. Cut to: Will waking up in the hospital. He has a sweet reunion with his family—and his best pals. They tell him about Eleven and how she saved everyone. The show time-jumps to Christmas, and things are nearly back to normal in Hawkins. Except Hopper is leaving food in the woods, and Will is coughing up slugs while suffering some supernatural PTSD.
Mixtape Moment
“When It’s Cold, I’d Like to Die” by Moby plays as Hopper and Joyce rescue Will from the Upside Down, beginning the moment Will breathes again. The 1995 track is a departure from the ’80s songs we’re used to, but it’s so otherworldly and perfect for the moment that it’s definitely forgivable.
Season 2
"Chapter 1: MADMAX"
The sophomore season opens on a dark night in Pittsburgh, October 28, 1984. A masked robbery is taking place, followed by a high-speed chase. One of the vigilantes (played by Linnea Berthelsen) is a telekinetic, like Eleven. We see her tattoo: “008.”
In Hawkins, it’s nearly Halloween and the boys are heading to the arcade. Someone named “MADMAX” has beaten their high scores on games like Dragon’s Lair and Dig Dug. Will is still connected to the Upside Down, unknowingly shadow walking into the realm. He does so from the arcade, and watches as a horrifying cloud closes in on Hawkins.
Outside the police station, conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) is waiting for Hopper. He says there’s reports of a Russian girl with psychic abilities in town. He’s talking about Eleven, but Hopper pushes him off.
Nancy and Steve are still together, and she’s helping him write an essay for his college applications, but Steve feels hopeless about his future. There are two new kids in school: teen bad-boy Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) and his middle-schooler stepsister Maxine “Max” Mayfield (Sadie Sink). The boys quickly connect her to the “MADMAX” moniker.
Meanwhile, Joyce is in a happy relationship with the kind Bob Newby (Sean Astin). But she and Hopper are the ones taking Will to see new Hawkins Lab boss Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) to talk about the Upside Down and Will’s PTSD. Owens tells them things will get worse with Will before they get better.
Nancy and Steve have dinner with Barb’s parents (Cynthia Barrett and Aaron Munoz)—they’ve hired Murray to investigate Barb’s case. Nancy’s guilt over not being able to provide them closure when she knows Barb died in the Upside Down is overwhelming.
And it turns out Dr. Owens was right about Will, who later sees the spiderlike Mind Flayer, a terrifying new creature from the Upside Down. In the final moments, viewers learn that Hopper has been secretly raising Eleven, as they sit down to eat dinner like a family.
Mixtape Moment
The Scorpions’ 1984 glam metal hit “Rock You Like a Hurricane” plays as Billy enters the school parking lot for the first time. He’s turning heads, and he knows it.
"Chapter 2: Trick or Treat, Freak"
We finally get to see what has happened with Eleven in the last year, starting with the moment she wakes up in the Upside Down after defeating the Demogorgon. She’s terrified and screaming for Mike. She busts out of the Upside Down through a rift and goes to the Wheeler house, but Mike’s being questioned by Brenner’s people. Eleven watches her friend through the window, then flees. Her story jumps to present day, when El is with Hopper, asking to go trick-or-treating. The costume will hide her from exposure, she says. Hopper doesn’t want to take the risk, but he promises to get off work early to eat candy with her.
At school, the boys are dressed as the Ghostbusters. Dustin and Lucas invite Max to join them for trick-or-treating, but she scoffs. When she later rides home with bully Billy, her standoffish behavior makes more sense. Billy, in his 1979 Chevrolet Camaro, nearly runs over Mike, Dustin and Lucas on their bikes. Still, Max shows up that night to trick-or-treat—first tricking the boys as she’s dressed as killer Michael Myers. Mike isn’t happy about her intrusion into the party. When Will has another vision of the Upside Down, Mike uses it as an escape to get out of there. Back at the Wheelers, Will opens up to Mike about his ongoing connection.
Joyce sees Will’s drawing of the Mind Flayer and shows Hopper. He’s not concerned yet, but he is worried about a series of rotted crops in the area. So concerned, in fact, that he’s supremely late for his night with El.
Later that night, at the high schoolers’ party, while Billy becomes the new Keg King, Nancy gets drunk and tells Steve she doesn’t love him. Jonathan drives her home.
When Hopper finally makes it back to the cabin, El is furious. In the final moments, we see her use her mind to try to reach out to Mike. Dustin, meanwhile, on his way back from his Halloween fun, finds something surprising in the trash cans outside his home.
Retro Reference
Who ya gonna call? For Halloween, the boys dress up as Ghostbusters‘ supernatural-slaying scientists. Lucas and Mike fight over who should be Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray‘s character) from the 1984 film.
"Chapter 3: The Pollywog"
Dustin brings his trash can find into the house. It’s a Demogorgon pollywog, about the size of his palm. Alas, he doesn’t make the connection between his new slimy pet and the Upside Down’s hellish creatures. He names the chirping creature D’Artagnan (shortened to Dart), after the Musketeer, because he likes the nougat candy just like him. Dustin even brings Dart to school the next day. But Will recognizes Dart for what it is—a product of the Upside Down.
Elsewhere, Eleven is getting impatient about not seeing Mike and being cooped up in Hopper’s cabin, so she goes out on her own. Billy gives Steve more trouble in gym class, and Nancy doesn’t recall her fight with Steve from the night before. But when Steve asks her to tell him that she loves him, she can’t. Meanwhile, Bob cannot stop making declarations toward Joyce.
Hopper connects the dying crops in the area to Hawkins Lab and goes after Dr. Owens. Throughout the episode, we see Hopper and Eleven’s first year together. He sets rules, says El’s mother is “gone” and reads her Anne of Green Gables, the same story he read to his own daughter before she died.
Joyce watches Will’s tape recording from Halloween night and gets a peek at the Mind Flayer, comparing it to Will’s drawing. Meanwhile, Dart grows legs and breaks loose from the AV club room. Nancy calls Mrs. Holland and tries to get her to meet her at a park so she can explain the truth about Barb.
Eleven, on her trek out of the cabin, makes it all the way to the school but then sees Mike and Max interacting, gets jealous and leaves. Will locates Dart and then finds himself in the Upside Down. He stands his ground against the Mind Flayer, listening to Bob’s advice, and is taken by the shadowy monster, which flies into Will’s body.
Mixtape Moment
Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” plays during the montage where Hopper and Eleven fix up his grandfather’s cabin in the woods. It’s the perfect song for the badass police chief, and it’s clearly a favorite of his.
"Chapter 4: Will the Wise"
Screech — Joyce peels into the school parking lot looking for Will. The problem is, so is everyone else. They all find him on the field, deep in the Mind Flayer’s clutches. After freeing Will, Joyce tells him that she thinks what he’s seeing is real and asks for “no more secrets.” Will breaks down. “It got me, Mom,” he sobs. “I felt it…everywhere. Everywhere. I still feel it.” Joyce vows to protect her son, but when he wakes up the next morning, his temperature is running cold. And Will refuses to get into a warm bath. “He likes it cold,” he says, referring to the Mind Flayer.
When Eleven comes home, she and Hopper get into a yelling match. But how do you ground a teenager who can control the TV with her mind? Eleven screams, blowing out every window in the cabin. The next day she cleans up the mess, and while doing so, uncovers Hopper’s research on Hawkins Lab.
Nancy and Jonathan skip school to meet Barb’s mom, but instead find themselves surrounded by agents. They’re taken to the lab and meet Dr. Owens, who shows them the gate to the Upside Down. He tries to get in their heads about preventing the Soviets from finding out, giving them reasons to keep quiet about it—but it’s clear it’s a threat. He doesn’t know, however, that Nancy is taping their incriminating conversation, and she plans to “burn that lab to the ground.”
At school, the boys are worried about Will, who is absent. Mike thinks the key to figuring out what’s wrong is Dart—but they don’t know that Dustin has already found his pet. Max, out of the loop, is frustrated with her new friends.
Hopper visits Joyce and Will. Will can’t describe what’s happening to him, but he can draw it. He sketches pages and pages of intricate vines—and Hopper connects it to the rotted crops.
Meanwhile, El is making her own connections. In Hopper’s research she finds Terry Ives’ folder and searches for her in her mind. When Dustin returns home from school, Dart has broken out of his habitat, grown and is feasting on the family cat, Mews. Finally, Hopper digs into the Upside Down through the farmers’ land. It’s clear that things are about to get a lot worse in Hawkins.
Mixtape Moment
We already know that Jonathan loves the Clash from Season 1, so it’s nice to hear another song, “This Is Radio Clash,” from the influential band playing while Jonathan and Nancy head out on their mission to the park.
"Chapter 5: Dig Dug"
Will’s drawings have taken over the Byers house. He then admits to pal Mike that he feels even more connected to the Shadow Monster (aka the Mind Flayer). Mike calls Will “a superspy” and thinks maybe it’s all happening for a reason. Hopper, while exploring the underground Upside Down tunnels, passes out. Will can see him and warns Joyce that he’s in danger. Will uses the drawings pasted all over the house to point them toward Hopper’s location.
Nancy and Jonathan are on the lam, and they turn to Murray, who has been investigating Barb’s disappearance. Dustin goes to war with Dart. And Eleven hitchhikes to see her mom, Terry. She finds her and her aunt Becky (Amy Seimetz). Lucas tells Max everything that happened last year, but she doesn’t believe him.
At the Byers house, Joyce brings Bob into the mystery of Will’s drawings. Thankfully, “Bob the Brain” cracks the puzzle of where to find Hopper. Dustin, meanwhile, can’t find any of his friends, but he does see Steve and snags a ride. (And thus begins one of Hawkins’ greatest friendships.) Hopper channels Indiana Jones but is swallowed up by the vines when he tries to escape the Upside Down. With Murray, Nancy and Jonathan concoct a watered-down version of the story of what killed Barb: toxins from the lab.
Eleven reaches her mother’s mind, and we see Terry’s heart-wrenching tale. She had her baby, but “Jane” was taken from her. Terry knew that Brenner was responsible, so she brought a gun to the lab. She was captured, and Brenner gave her electroshock therapy, frying her brain. Eleven is devastated.
Joyce and Bob go into the Upside Down after Hopper. Bob is clueless as to what’s really happening, but they do save the chief. Seconds later, Brenner’s team swarms the tunnels, bringing them all to safety and burning the vines that had been restraining Hopper. The fire physically hurts Will, and the episode ends on an eerie shot of him screaming.
Mixtape Moment
To help him think, Murray drinks Russian vodka and listens to jazz. The record he reaches for after hearing Nancy and Jonathan’s story is by Billie Holiday. “No More” plays, and it’s surprising to hear non-’80s music so prominently in the series, but this won’t be the
last time we see the former investigative reporter connected to a jazzy tune.
"Chapter 6: The Spy"
Will is wheeled into Hawkins Lab, burning from the fire. Meanwhile, Dustin and Steve discover that Dart has grown even more—and burrowed his own tunnels into the ground. There’s now another Demogorgon loose in Hawkins.
Murray tells Nancy and Jonathan to stay the night, but not before dropping some hard truths about their relationship. He gets in their heads, and the two teens finally hook up. Steve and Dustin plan to lure Dart to the junkyard. After Hopper recovers—barely—from the Upside Down, Owens has him throw on a hazmat suit and brings him right back into the underworld. “It’s been spreading,” he tells Hopper of the vines. “Growing beneath us like some cancer.”
Joyce fills Bob in while they wait for Will to wake up. But when Will does, he doesn’t remember Bob, Owens or Hopper. Only Joyce and Mike are familiar to him. Owens tells Joyce and Hopper that Will is infected with a virus, but what’s unusual is that the virus has a hive intelligence that is connecting all the hosts—like Will and the vines. Will is losing himself, but he tells Mike that he thinks he knows how to stop the Shadow Monster.
On the way to the junkyard, Steve gives Dustin advice on girls, and shares his hair routine. Lucas and Max join them, hoping to help lure Dart. Once it’s dark and foggy, it’s not just Dart that shows, but a whole pack of Demodogs. Thankfully, Steve doesn’t need to use his nail bat—the Demodogs are lured elsewhere before they can strike. Then Will apologizes—the hive mind made him do it. It was all a trap.
Mixtape Moment
One of the series’ best team-ups is Dustin and Steve, and the two continue to have a brotherly relationship as the series progresses. In their first car ride together, they’re listening to Queen‘s “Hammer to Fall.” That 1984 single is a nice foreshadowing for the trouble ahead.
"Chapter 7: The Lost Sister"
Eleven and Becky have a chat. Eleven believes that her mother wants her to find another girl that she’s showing her in a vision, a girl like Eleven. That girl is the same one from the season opener, 008. When El finally locates her in her mind, she runs to tell Becky, but she sees her aunt calling the Hawkins P.D. looking for Hopper. El runs away and goes to Chicago. She learns “Eight” is named Kali—El tells Kali her name is Jane—and the two embrace each other as sisters.
Kali’s gift is different from El’s. She can make others see hallucinations. They bond, but Kali plans to use El’s gift to her advantage. She introduces El to her smoking, gambling gang of outcasts and helps El channel her anger into power. Together they track down some of the bad men who hurt Kali and El’s mother at Hawkins Lab. El gets a “bitchin’” makeover, and they go after one of Brenner’s grunts, Ray Carroll (Pruitt Taylor Vince). They’re about to kill him when they discover he has two young daughters in his apartment. El prevents Kali from finishing the job. Later, Kali tells her that she sees her past mistakes in El. She then manipulates El, making her hallucinate Brenner, their “Papa.” “This isn’t a prison, Jane,” Kali tells El. “You’re always free to return to your policeman, or stay and avenge your mother. Let us heal our wounds together.”
But El misses Mike and Hopper back in Hawkins. She enters her mindscape and sees them in trouble. Just then, the Feds bust in on Kali’s gang. They escape, but El leaves separately, telling Kali she must go home to save her friends.
Mixtape Moment
As Eleven arrives in Chicago, “Runaway” by Bon Jovi is playing. It’s her first time in a big city, and it’s an exciting moment for the young teen. Plus, the lyrics perfectly sync up what’s going on with her and Hopper, whom she has run away from.
"Chapter 8: The Mind Flayer"
“We’re under attack,” says Mike. Demodogs are busting through the Upside Down into the lab. Scientists are fleeing—or being mauled. Joyce, Bob and Mike put Will to sleep so the Mind Flayer can’t see their group, and then they make their move. But soon Owens, Hopper (carrying Will), Joyce, Bob and Mike are trapped. And then the lab goes dark.
Elsewhere, Billy is tasked with finding Max. But Max has bigger problems: The howling Demodogs lead her, Lucas, Dustin and Steve straight to the lab. Outside, they run into Nancy and Jonathan.
Inside the lab, Hopper and Bob agree to team up to get the power back on, so they can get the locked doors open and escape. Hopper hits the breaker, and on another floor, Bob overrides the computers, unlocking the doors. While Joyce and Mike run, Owens stays behind, watching the security feeds as everyone escapes. For a tense few minutes, he guides Bob away from a Demodog. Bob bursts into the lobby—even making eye contact with Joyce, who is at the exit—before he’s tackled to the ground by a Demodog and killed. It’s a devastating ending for the brave nerd.
Back at the Byers house, Hopper tells everyone to stay put and wait for help. But the boys are starting to formulate a plan to defeat the Mind Flayer. They tie up the still-asleep Will in the garden shed and rouse him. If he doesn’t know where he is, he can’t tell the Mind Flayer how to find them. But when they wake Will up, he’s possessed—and angry. Joyce talks him down by reminding him about his eighth birthday. The others join in with their own thoughtful memories of Will. It’s clear Will’s still in there, but he can’t communicate with words. Instead, he taps out Morse code, telling them “CLOSE GATE.” But then the house phone rings, which reveals their location to the Mind Flayer. Demodogs close in on the home. As the group prepares to go down fighting, a dead Demodog is thrown through the front window. It’s El, and she’s saved them.
Retro Reference
Max asks Lucas what they’ll do if the Mind Flayer’s Demodogs find them at the Byers’ home. “Judgment Day” is Lucas’ response. It’s a direct call-back to Ghostbusters, and a particular scene that plays out in a similar fashion onscreen. At the time, cocreator Ross Duffer said that it’s his favorite moment from the 1984 flick.
"Chapter 9: The Gate"
It’s the season finale, and the gang’s all back together. Eleven and Mike have a tearful reunion. Mike and Hopper get into a screaming match over the fact that Hopper hid El for a year. And El brushes off Max’s hello. It’s time to formulate a plan. They know they need to close the gate to the Upside Down and kill the Mind Flayer, but doing so will kill the monster’s army, which Will is a part of. To avoid that, they plan to make Will’s body uninhabitable to the Mind Flayer, which means lots of heat. Jonathan and Joyce are going to take Will to Hopper’s cabin for that, while Hopper takes El to the gate.
Steve gives Nancy his blessing for her to go with Jonathan. He sees what’s between them and tells her it’s OK. “I may be a pretty sh–ty boyfriend, but turns out I’m actually a pretty damn good babysitter,” Steve admits, cementing his place in the group. Meanwhile, Hopper and El catch up and apologize. Back at the Byers house, Lucas, Max, Mike and Dustin are lamenting to Steve about being on the bench while everyone else is helping. Then Billy shows up looking for Max. He threatens Lucas, and Steve and Billy brawl. Billy’s winning, but Max uses one of Will’s sedatives on her stepbrother, knocking him out. She grabs his car keys, and off they go. When the unconscious Steve comes to, Max is driving. The kids plan to break into the Upside Down via the hole Hopper dug on the farm. They want to douse the Mind Flayer’s central hub with gasoline and set it on fire. Steve reluctantly joins as their guardian.
In Hawkins Lab, Hopper finds Owens and introduces him to Eleven. The doc has been attacked but is still alive. As Hopper continues on, he and El find the gate, but it’s surrounded by Demodogs. Thankfully, Steve and the kids have just set the hub on fire, and the dogs flee in pain. Also fleeing? The Mind Flayer from Will’s body. It bursts out of the cabin into the night sky, and the Byers family embraces.
The kids escape the Upside Down just in time, and all the Demodogs run to Eleven and Hopper as El is attempting to close the gate. But El is stronger, and she succeeds.
One month later, the lab has been shut down by the military. Hopper meets Owens, and he slides him a birth certificate for “Jane Hopper.” Later, on the night of the middle school’s Snow Ball dance, everyone’s happy. Max and Lucas kiss, Nancy asks a forlorn Dustin to dance, and then Eleven shows up and Mike’s world stops. In the final seconds, the actual world flips and we see the Upside Down. A storm is brewing.
Mixtape Moment
“Every Breath You Take” by the Police is playing when El walks into the Snow Ball. It’s a perfect choice to showcase the young love between her and Mike, who holds his breath at the sight of her.
Season 3
"Chapter 1: Suzie, Do You Copy?"
It’s June 28, 1984, and the story begins in Kamchatka, Russia, where Soviet scientists are attempting to reopen the gate to the Upside Down. The powerful machine they’re using nearly succeeds—a rift begins to form, but it is swiftly closed when the machine malfunctions. The scientist in charge is killed for his failure, and his second in command, Dr. Alexei (Alec Utgoff), is given one year to accomplish the task.
One year later, in Hawkins, Mike and Eleven are making out in Hopper’s cabin. The chief is not happy. Later, Mike, Will, Lucas and Max are hanging out at the newly opened Starcourt Mall. They go through the back of the Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor, where Steve and his new colleague Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) work, to sneak into the mall’s private corridors, which lead to the movie theater, to see horror film Day of the Dead. They’ve just sat down when the mall’s power goes out. The camera pulls back to show the surrounding grid is affected by the outage. And then, we see particles form a shadowy body. Before we can question it, the lights are back on. But Will has a prickle in the back of his neck.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan are in a relationship and have both snagged jobs at the local paper, The Hawkins Post. Dustin returns after a month at science camp and shows his friends Cerebro, a ham radio he constructed to communicate with his new girlfriend, Suzie. No one believes Suzie is real.
Hopper, struggling with El and Mike dating, goes to Joyce for advice—and asks his old friend to dinner while he’s there. Joyce turns him down; she’s still hung up on the dearly departed Bob.
At the pool, Billy hits on Mike’s mom, Karen. Later, Hopper tries to have a “heart-to-heart” with El and Mike but winds up threatening Mike instead. Dustin picks up a Russian transmission on his new radio, and something sinister is happening with all the rats in Hawkins. That night, Billy, on his way to see Karen, is driven off the road—and attacked.
Mixtape Moment
Mike comes up for air while making out with Eleven to sing along to Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender” on the radio in a particularly goofy moment. She doesn’t like it but still laughs anyway. And it is nice to see a lighter side to the young Wheeler as he lets loose.
"Chapter 2: The Mall Rats"
The story opens on Billy, in the middle of the Mind Flayer’s chaotic attack. Billy breaks out of the abandoned steel mill he was dragged into, hops in his car and peels off to the nearest phone booth, where he calls 911. And then we see that the Mind Flayer has already gotten to him, and Billy is really in the Upside Down. The Mind Flayer is planning to amass an army in Hawkins. Billy’s going to help.
Meanwhile, Eleven is confused when Mike blows her off—he’s been scared away by Hopper’s threats. Hopper celebrates by getting Joyce to agree to dinner that night.
Nancy and a reluctant Jonathan follow a tip about diseased rats. Their informant, Mrs. Doris Driscoll (Peggy Miley), has caught a fertilizer-eating rat in her basement. The rodent is wild—and explodes after Jonathan and Nancy leave. Viewers see the remaining rat goop travel outside of the cage, sentient and squealing.
Dustin and Steve, and later Robin, work to translate the Russian message Dustin heard. Eleven goes to Max for Mike help, and Max teaches her that “boyfriends lie.”
At the pool, Karen approaches Billy about their near-tryst; he warns her to stay away. He’s clearly not himself.
Hawkins’ townsfolks protest Mayor Larry Kline (Cary Elwes) for the jobs lost with the erection of Starcourt. Cue El and Max’s shopping montage. Mike and Lucas are also at the mall, shopping for the girls.
Joyce, researching electromagnetic fields, visits science teacher Mr. Clarke for answers. Billy kidnaps fellow lifeguard Heather Holloway (Francesca Reale). At the mall, El dumps Mike. Joyce stands up Hopper. Robin translates the code; Steve realizes the broadcast came from the mall. Finally, Billy drops Heather in the warehouse and the Mind Flayer—made physical from the exploded rats—descends.
Mixtape Moment
There are plenty of jukebox hits, like a reprise of “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” and the parody “My Bologna” by Weird Al, used to reintroduce Mr. Clarke into the series. But the most ’80s-fueled moment comes during Eleven and Max’s shopping trip as Madonna’s “Material Girl” blares.
"Chapter 3: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard"
Max and El are having a sleepover. They devise a spin–the–bottle–like game where El must spy on whomever it lands on. But when it’s Billy she looks for, El is spooked by what she finds: his busted car and an unseen girl.
The next morning, Joyce busts into a hungover Hopper’s cabin. He’s upset she bailed on dinner, and she is focused on the magnets that aren’t sticking. She wants him to take her back to the lab. Are they up and running again?
At Max’s, El and Max look for Billy. Instead, they find empty ice bags in the bathtub and Heather’s bloody lifeguard whistle. Nancy pitches her story on Mrs. Driscoll, and the men of the Post laugh her out of the room.
At Scoops Ahoy, Robin is distracted by the code and refuses to serve bossy Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) free samples while Dustin and Steve scope out the mall for evil Russians. Will, thrilled to have his BFFs single, tries to rouse them for D&D but fails. The boys fight over their new priorities.
It’s raining, and El and Max are now searching for Heather. El has unnerving visions of the girl. Hopper and Joyce, meanwhile, make it into the lab. There, in an empty room, Hopper tells Joyce that he wants her to feel safe in town. He’s heard that she’s putting her house up for sale, and he wants her to stay. Robin cracks the nonsense code’s meaning. Later, she, Dustin and Steve have a stakeout and watch a suspicious armed delivery.
As an emotional Will tells Mike and Lucas that the Mind Flayer is back, Nancy and Jonathan return to Mrs. Driscoll’s and find her eating fertilizer.
Hopper and Joyce hear a sound in the lab. While the chief explores, he’s attacked by a Terminator-like man (Andrey Ivchenko’s Grigori).
At Heather’s, El and Max see Billy dining with the Holloways, Tom and Janet (Michael Park and Holly Morris). Heather is there too, with cookies. Nothing appears to be off, but Billy is shaken by El. The Mind Flayer sees her. But what seemed like domestic bliss was a trap. In the final minutes, Heather and Billy knock out her parents. The Mind Flayer needs soldiers, after all.
Retro Reference
At Max’s house, El is flipping through the fictional SuperTeen magazine with a feature on The Karate Kid‘s very real Ralph Macchio. Given the film was released in 1984, the year prior, it’s no surprise Max would be familiar with the teen heartthrob, as she explains him to her sheltered friend El.
"Chapter 4: The Sauna Test"
Joyce takes Hopper back to his cabin after their lab trip. When he’s revived, he has questions about his attacker. Meanwhile, the boys call a Code Red. Everyone gathers, except Dustin, who is still with Steve and Robin. Will tells them all his theory about the Mind Flayer attaching itself to a new host. Eleven promises that she sealed the gate but, as Will notes, the part of the Mind Flayer that was in him could’ve been out in Hawkins still. “What if we locked him out here with us?” he asks.
At the Post, editor Tom—Heather’s dad, who recently became a Flayed—fires Nancy and Jonathan for pursuing the Mrs. Driscoll story. He’s sweating and furious. After, Nancy and Jonathan fight.
Hopper and Joyce go to the mayor’s, where Hopper saw the man who beat him up weeks ago. He pressures Kline, who cracks: He is connected to the mall.
Robin makes a plan to get to the guarded Russian boxes through the air ducts, but no one fits. Enter Erica, Lucas’ sassy little sis, who is bribed with ice cream.
The group (correctly) thinks that Billy is the new host. They want to lure Billy into the pool’s sauna. Since the Mind Flayer hates heat, they’re sure this is the way to prove their theory. They lock him in and crank the temp. Billy admits to being controlled by the shadow before the Mind Flayer takes hold. Black veins invade Billy’s body. At the hospital, Nancy sees the same thing happening to Mrs. Driscoll.
Erica, Dustin, Steve and Robin succeed, finding radioactive canisters inside the boxes. Then the room—an elevator—drops.
Billy escapes the kids, running back to Heather at the steel works. There’s now an entire room of “deactivated” citizens controlled by the lurking Mind Flayer.
Mixtape Moment
“We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn plays over the final minutes as we see the Mind Flayer’s growing army. The 1939 World War II–era track gives a haunting moment of foreshadowing to the scenes ahead. How will the Mind Flayer use those in service to the otherworldly creature?
"Chapter 5: The Flayed"
Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica are plummeting downward in the elevator, the Russians’ boxes falling around them. When it stops, they’re trapped miles below ground.
On Hess Farm, Hopper and Joyce hunt for the electromagnetic issue and find a startled Alexei, speaking Russian. Then, stoic baddie Grigori stomps in. Hopper almost gets the jump on the hitman, and they tussle. As Hopper and Grigori swing around the room, with the latter’s machine gun blaring, Joyce picks up Hopper’s gun. She tries to help—but throws the gun so poorly it winds up with Grigori. The action ends as Hopper handcuffs himself to Alexei and the three flee.
The next day, Nancy and Jonathan find Mike, Lucas, Will, Max and Eleven, who know something is wrong. They can’t find Dustin or Hopper. While the teens tell the kids about Mrs. Driscoll, they start to figure out who is Flayed.
In the elevator, Steve, Robin, Dustin and Erica escape after two grunts unload boxes, not bothering to watch the door shut. Hopper, Joyce and Alexei also make it out of the woods—and into a 7-Eleven convenience store. They commandeer a yellow convertible, but Grigori is close behind.
Nancy and Jonathan drive the gang to the empty Holloway house. They theorize that the Flayed are consuming toxins to build something. Can Mrs. Driscoll lead them to the Mind Flayer?
Hopper and Joyce bring Alexei to Murray, who speaks Russian. Steve, Robin, Dustin and Erica make it to the center of the Russian base, where Steve knocks out a guard. “Dude! You did it! You won a fight!” exclaims Dustin. There, they see the machine opening a rift into the Upside Down.
At the hospital, Nancy and Jonathan find Mrs. Driscoll’s room abandoned, except for Tom and reporter Bruce Lowe (Jake Busey), both Flayed. As they run, killed hospital staffers line the halls. Nancy and Jonathan take out Bruce and Tom, but it’s a close call. Defeated, both Flayed melt into flesh puddles that seep out of the room and into each other, forming a horrible, roaring beast.
Retro Reference
Viewers learn that Busey’s Hawkins Post employee Bruce has joined the Flayed in this episode. While he chases Nancy and Jonathan through the hospital hallways, he shatters a window and with a manic smile says, “Hi there.” It’s the Stranger Things version of Jack Nicholson‘s “Here’s Johnny!” moment from 1980’s The Shining.
"Chapter 6: E Pluribus Unum"
At the new gate to the Upside Down, the alarms blare. Before Dustin and Steve can explain the rift to Robin and Erica, Robin and Steve must help the two kids escape.
In the hospital, Eleven busts in, saving Nancy from the snarling monster, which she sends flying. It enters a sewer grate.
Grigori is putting pressure on Kline to find Hopper at the mayor’s Fun Fair. At Murray’s, Hopper loses his patience trying to get Alexei to talk. He gets through, though, when he realizes their captive is more afraid of his people than them.
Left behind, Steve and Robin are interrogated. Steve offers Commander Ozerov (Misha Kuznetsov) free ice cream. They knock him out and tie him to Robin.
Through Murray, Alexei tells Joyce and Hopper about the gate’s key that’s stealing power from local grids—why magnets won’t stick to Joyce’s fridge. They’re using the key to “open a doorway between worlds.” Hopper and Joyce, appropriately, freak out. Alexei tells them he could turn it off, but he’s compromised, and breaking in is impossible. Cut to: Dustin and Erica wandering the complex. Robin and Steve bond before the Russians return to drug the teens, who can’t stop giggling. Dustin and Erica create a distraction, saving them.
El searches for Billy in the Void. She lands on a beach in his childhood memory of his mom (Beth Riesgraf). Upside Down storm clouds churn in the distance. As she walks on, she sees Billy’s trauma from his abusive dad, then Brimborn Steel Works, where the Mind Flayer got him. Then, Billy as the Mind Flayer finds her. “Now we can all see you,” he says. As he scares her, we see dozens of “activated” Hawkins residents go to the mill. One by one, they fall, melting into the growing Spider Monster.
Retro Reference
As Dustin and Erica escape, he tells Erica that she’s a nerd, which she refutes, despite her math skills, passion for politics and My Little Pony love. Then Dustin recalls the plot to 1984’s My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle movie, which features centaurs, dragons and magic. Sounds nerdy to us.
"Chapter 7: The Bite"
The fourth of July Fun Fair is in full swing, but outside the carnival, the Mind Flayer’s Spider Monster is headed to Hopper’s cabin. The crew reinforces the cabin and waits. As tentacles burst through the walls, windows and roof, El can only hold off the beast for so long. It grabs her by the leg and holds on tight. Between Nancy’s shotgun and Lucas’ axe, they free El, and she rips the beast’s head down the middle. Still, it roars as they run.
At the base, Dustin and Erica struggle to get a drugged Steve and Robin out of the mall. Hopper and Joyce are also struggling. The adults are bickering (again) on the ride back to Hawkins.
The kids, with Nancy and Jonathan, break into a supermarket to bandage El’s leg. Mike tries to tell El that he loves her. Lucas finds fireworks to use as a weapon. And Dustin finally connects with the group via walkie-talkie—until his batteries run out. El mindwalks, seeing Dustin at the mall, but Billy’s close behind.
Hopper and Joyce make it to the fair, looking for the kids. But as they do, Kline spots the chief and uses his car phone to call Grigori. Steve and Robin puke the drugs out of their system and get honest with each other. Steve admits to Robin that he really likes her. Robin admits to Steve that she really likes girls. Their newfound friendship cannot be stopped.
At the fair, Murray gets Alexei tickets to play games. The thrilled Alexei is calling to Murray when Grigori arrives, shooting the scientist in the chest. When Joyce and a frantic Murray make it back to Alexei, he is dead. Inside the horror maze, Hopper is facing Russian agents, and Grigori, whom he guns down. (It doesn’t work; he’s wearing a vest.) Hopper hops in the car with Joyce and Murray and they peel out. While driving, they intercept a transmission, which Murray translates. They’ve found the children in the mall. At Starcourt, Russians close in on Steve, Dustin, Robin and Erica, but El arrives, taking them out. The full squad is united—minus adults—and they have a lot to catch up on. But El passes out, and we see why: There’s a piece of the monster embedded in her leg.
Retro Reference
Dustin and Erica can’t get a ride out of the mall—the Russians took Steve’s car keys. Plus, Steve and Robin are very drugged. The kids sit the teens down in the movie theater to lie low, while 1985 sci-fi flick Back to the Future plays. It’s hilarious to see the confused Robin and Steve try to decipher the film’s time travel plot.
"Chapter 8: The Battle of Starcourt"
It’s the big finale, and El is down for the count. She uses her telekinesis to eject the Mind Flayer from her leg. Hopper, arriving with Joyce and Murray, crushes it.
Steve and Robin drive Dustin to his radio tower, so they can use walkie-talkies to reach the adults underground as they go after the gate. Nancy and Jonathan try to take the others to safety, but the car’s ignition cable is gone. They run inside.
In the mall, El is cut off from her powers. Then, the monster crashes through the ceiling. Below, after donning Russian uniforms, Murray enters the vents and Joyce asks Hopper out for a redo date. From the hill, Dustin, Steve, Robin and Erica see the mall lit up. Mike, El and Max are hiding on one side of the food court—Will, Lucas, Nancy and Jonathan on the other.
Murray disables the power to the gate, but the code Murray gives—the value of Planck’s constant—isn’t working. Dustin radios his girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) and successfully obtains the number.
Meanwhile, Mike and Max assist El through the back halls, but Billy knocks them out and grabs El. Grigori attacks Hopper and Joyce as they’re about to turn off the machine. After a tense showdown, Hopper defeats Grigori as the kids throw fireworks at the beast. Billy holds El down in front of the monster, but she reminds him of the memory she saw—and Billy’s humanity floods back. He stands up to the Mind Flayer, and loses his life. Joyce is ready to close the gate but knows Hopper, next to the machine, will die. She does it anyway, and the monster falls. Joyce looks for, but can’t find, Hopper in the carnage. Military helicopters arrive. It’s Owens’ people, finally answering Hopper’s message.
Three months later: The Byerses are moving, and taking El with them. She’s still powerless. Joyce finds Hopper’s speech to El and lets the grieving girl read it.
At a Russian prison, an inmate is fed to a Demogorgon, and the guards refer to another prisoner, an American. Wait, who?
Mixtape Moment
Suzie makes Dustin sing a duet with her, the inspiring “The NeverEnding Story” theme by Limahl, before she tells him Planck’s constant. It’s adorable, sweet and a great way to break up the feature-length episode’s high tension.
Season 4
"Chapter 1: The Hellfire Club"
The season opens on a flashback to September 8, 1979, where we see the meticulous Dr. Brenner running Hawkins Lab. But something is wrong, and Brenner is knocked out. When he comes to, the child he was with is dead, and there’s been a violent massacre. The bloody child left standing is young Eleven (Martie Blair). “What have you done?” he demands.
Jump to: March 21, 1986, in Lenora Hills, California. El is writing Mike a letter from the Golden State, where the Byerses now reside. Joyce has a new telemarketer job. Jonathan’s new friend, Surfer Boy Pizza driver Argyle (Eduardo Franco), takes El and Will to school every day. It sounds nice, but El is hiding from Mike that she doesn’t really fit in. Thankfully, it’s almost spring break and Mike’s visiting tomorrow.
At Hawkins High, Max is in counseling. Lucas is on the basketball team. They are not together. Team captain Jason Carver (Mason Dye) and his cheerleader girlfriend Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) run the school. Max later runs into Chrissy in the bathroom. Chrissy is throwing up, mentally tormented by an invisible force.
Metalhead Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), the Hellfire Club’s Dungeon Master, is ending his campaign “The Cult of Vecna” that night, and he refuses to move the meetup for Lucas’ basketball game, forcing Mike and Dustin to get a sub: Erica.
Joyce gets a creepy Russian doll in the mail and calls Murray. Inside is a letter saying that Hop is alive. Chrissy’s visions get worse—and she tries to buy drugs from Eddie. The two strike up a friendship.
Robin pines for crush Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) at the game, where Lucas, a benchwarmer, scores the winning basket.
Max sees Eddie, her trailer park neighbor, bring Chrissy home. While he’s getting the drugs, her visions get worse. Eddie returns, but Chrissy is frozen, eyelids flickering. In her mind is evil Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). “Don’t cry, Chrissy,” he says. “It’s time for your suffering to end.” In the trailer, her body flies to the ceiling, bones cracking at odd angles as Eddie screams.
Mixtape Moment
The first track we hear (in an episode worthy of its own soundtrack!) is the Beach Boys’ 1986 track “California Dreamin’.” Unfortunately for El, California is more of a nightmare than a dream.
"Chapter 2: Vecna’s Curse"
Hopper survived last season finale’s explosion, was taken in by the Russians, tortured and imprisoned. A squad of cop cars pull into the trailer park and Max glimpses Chrissy’s mangled corpse.
Mike arrives in California, and so does Murray. News spreads through Hawkins about Eddie and Chrissy, and the cops question her boyfriend, Jason. Max goes to Dustin, who refuses to believe Eddie is responsible. She saw Eddie run out of the trailer, scared. They need to find him.
At Joyce’s, Murray finds the Hopper letter suspect, but Joyce believes in it. They plan to call the number on it. Mike, El and Will hit the roller rink. Will confronts El for lying to Mike. El’s bully Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin) publicly embarrasses her, and she flees but later gets revenge, with a skate to Angela’s face.
Max and Dustin seek help from Robin and Steve at the Family Video where they now work. Nancy also pursues the Chrissy mystery, with fellow editor Fred Benson (Logan Riley Bruner), whom Vecna is after.
In California, Jonathan is upset. He admits to Argyle that he isn’t going to college with Nancy; he’s staying local. Joyce and Murray call the letter’s phone number and reach Enzo (Tom Wlaschiha), who asks for $40,000 from Hopper’s trust. The prison guard wants them to get it to Alaska in two days; he’ll bring Hopper.
In Hawkins, Lucas tries to calm Jason’s Satanic Panic over Eddie, but the captain riles the rest of the team into a witch hunt. Nancy questions Eddie’s uncle Wayne (Joel Stoffer), who blames Victor Creel, a local legend who killed his family.
Dustin, Max, Steve and Robin find Eddie hiding in a boathouse by Lover’s Lake and tell him about the Upside Down. In the final minutes, Nancy can’t find Fred. He has succumbed to Vecna.
Mixtape Moment
The Surfaris song “Wipe Out” plays in the roller rink as El (“Jane” to her California classmates) is trapped in the middle under a spotlight. After the record skips, a bullied El has a chocolate milkshake thrown on her. She is having her Carrie moment, but we know she gets up swinging.
"Chapter 3: The Monster and the Superhero"
In Ruth, Nevada, Dr. Owens, fired for last season’s Russian invasion in Hawkins, is visited by Lt. Colonel Jack Sullivan (Sherman Augustus) about Chrissy’s murder. He blames Eleven and wants to find her. El, meanwhile, faces repercussions for hitting Angela. Joyce, with Murray, tells El and the boys she needs to go on a “business trip.”
In Hawkins, Lucas joins Jason’s hunt for Eddie. But Eddie is being initiated into the gang. They plan to find and kill Vecna and prove Eddie’s innocence. Nancy is rattled after losing Fred, who is found mutilated like Chrissy. But she reconnects with Steve, Robin, Dustin and Max and they debrief about Vecna.
Mike tries to help El with her bullying, but she’s upset. She calls him out for never saying he loves her. As they fight, the cops arrive, taking El away in handcuffs. Angela’s pressing charges.
In Russia, Enzo updates Hopper, telling him that if he gets the money, he will send Hopper back to America with a pilot smuggler named Yuri (Nikola Djuricko). But Hopper needs to plan his own escape.
In the Munson trailer, a rift opens. Vecna is seen searching Hawkins’ youth for his next victim. El is told she’s going to juvie after being processed. Without Joyce, the boys can’t see her.
Robin joins Nancy at the library to look into Victor Creel. Dustin confronts Steve, who offered to go with Nancy, about still crushing on his ex. Max tries to talk to school counselor Ms. Kelly (Regina Ting Chen) but steals Chrissy’s and Fred’s files instead. Lucas radios, trying to warn Dustin about Jason and his cronies who are beating up Hellfire Club members. Lucas then tells Jason that Eddie is hiding in Hopper’s cabin to throw them off.
Dr. Owens has El pulled from the van transporting her to juvie and brings her to a diner. “Last night, I saw something,” he tells her. “Something I’ve been dreading for a long time.… A war is coming to Hawkins.” He thinks he can bring El’s abilities back stronger than before, but she must come with him. She agrees. In the last minutes, Max sees Vecna’s grandfather clock. He’s coming for her next.
Retro Reference
Spring break at the Byerses isn’t going well, so Jonathan suggests they go to the movies to see 1986’s Police Academy 3: Back in Training. Even Will dismisses the idea. He’s right—the movie was a critical flop that year.
"Chapter 4: Dear Billy"
In California, Owens’ people tell the boys about El’s training. Agents are stationed in the house while Joyce is away. “So we’re just supposed to trust that you’re the good guys?” asks Mike. Right.
Max tells her friends about her Vecna vision. Fred and Chrissy both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. Suddenly, Lucas runs in to tell them about Jason, but they’ve got bigger problems.
Nancy and Robin go undercover at Pennhurst Asylum to find Victor Creel (horror icon Robert Englund), under the guise of being college scholars.
As Joyce and Murray get ready for the ransom exchange, Hopper is preparing his escape. Enzo gives him odds of a hundred to one. Of course Hopper will beat them.
Mike opens up to Will about his fight with El. Then Jonathan arrives, and they call Argyle for a ride out of California.
Joyce and Murray meet Yuri, but his plane is damaged. And, he’s totally nuts. Hopper fights his way to safety, while Enzo casually smokes a cigarette.
Max writes goodbye letters in case something bad happens to her. Lucas tries to be there for his ex. At Pennhurst, Robin inspires director Dr. Hatch (Ed Amatrudo) into letting them meet Victor, who reveals to them his terrible family story.
Just before Argyle arrives at the Byerses, gunmen invade the house. Mike, Will and Jonathan barely escape. In Russia, Hopper makes it to Yuri’s safe house, but Yuri double-crosses them all.
Max visits Billy’s grave, and it’s there that Vecna comes for her. In his Mind Lair, he attacks. But Dustin, Steve and Lucas put her Walkman on, playing Kate Bush. She follows the music out. “I’m still here,” she assures Lucas.
Mixtape Moment
It’s Robin who connects music as a lifeline to the outside world, but Lucas picks the song for Max that protects her from Vecna. Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” is Max’s favorite song. It works. Bonus: the ’80s track was catapulted to No. 1 on the charts after the season premiered.
"Chapter 5: The Nina Project"
We finally catch up with Eleven and Owens. They arrive at an underground bunker in the desert where he’s built Project Nina (essentially an advanced sensory deprivation tank to harness El’s powers). Dr. Brenner is there, and Eleven immediately makes a run for it. “You’re home now,” Brenner tells her.
In Russia, Hopper is brought back into the prison, dropped in a fighting pit. Enzo is there too, as an inmate.
Yuri gets his plane working and Joyce and Murray take off for Russia as prisoners. Max is sketching Vecna’s Mind Lair. Nancy recognizes the Creel house from her drawing.
In the bunker, El wakes up as she once was in Hawkins Lab. It’s a terrible nightmare. She sees Henry Creel, One, who later becomes Vecna. Brenner thinks the secret to the 1979 lab massacre is in El’s memory.
Meanwhile, Hopper is spiraling and has lost hope. “I wasn’t cursed,” he tells Enzo. “I am the curse.” Then they hear a Demogorgon’s roar.
At Chrissy’s funeral, basketball player Patrick McKinney (Myles Truitt) is seeing visions. Steve, Dustin, Robin, Nancy, Lucas and Max break into the abandoned Creel house for answers.
Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle head to see Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie in Utah—they need a hacker.
Eddie, meanwhile, is about to have his hiding spot blown by Jason. Panicked, he walkie-talkies Dustin. In the Creel house, Nancy and Steve have a moment, as do Max and Lucas. Then, the lights begin flickering, leading the whole group up to the attic.
On the plane, Joyce and Murray free their binds but are caught by the pilot. Murray accidentally knocks Yuri out, though, and then they are stuck flying the plane…sort of. They crash-land.
On Lover’s Lake, Eddie tries to escape via rowboat, but Jason jumps in, swimming after him. Vecna takes Patrick in front of Jason and Eddie.
El goes into cardiac arrest and they pull her out of the tank. She tries to escape again, and her powers are back, momentarily. But when she can’t use them on Brenner, she agrees to stay.
Retro Reference
Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle’s desert troubles reminded them—and us—of the 1983 Matthew Broderick drama film WarGames. As they try to call El, they are met with computer sounds on the line, and who else can they go to for help but hacker Suzie? The scene in Season 4’s first episode where she changed Dustin’s grade sure hinted it.
"Chapter 6: The Dive"
“How do you expect to stop the devil, if you don’t believe he’s real?” a shaken Jason asks the Hawkins P.D. Also evil? The lieutenant colonel, who is torturing one of Owens’ people for El’s location.
Eddie is still on the lam. What’s worse: The Hawkins P.D. releases Eddie’s name. He’s public enemy No. 1.
Murray and Joyce are searching for the prison with Yuri in tow. Hopper and the other prisoners have a lavish last meal.
In El’s memory, she’s living out that day in 1979. Henry tells her that Papa doesn’t always tell the truth. He says he knows One very well but doesn’t tell her he is One. He sows plenty of doubt in her mind.
Jason steps up during a police press conference and ignites Satanic Panic throughout Hawkins, publicly blaming the Hellfire Club with a photo that includes the kids. Their parents look on, concerned.
Suzie helps Mike, Will and Jonathan, but first they must break into her dad’s office. Dustin, in the woods, sees the compasses are off—pointing to a new gate.
In 1979, Brenner pits the kids against each other. Two (Tristan Spohn) throws every opponent—but not Eleven. In the Russian pit, Hopper has Enzo attack him. They put them both in another cell, but Hopper now has the tools he needs to fight the Demogorgon: vodka and fire.
El is attacked by Two and the other kids. They’re throwing her around with their abilities. And then her memory gets fuzzy. Did she kill them all?
Steve, Eddie, Nancy and Robin row out on Lover’s Lake, where the compass gets even crazier. Steve dives in and finds a rift. He surfaces, but a vine yanks him under and through the Upside Down. Nancy—and eventually Robin and Eddie—go after him.
Retro Reference
What’s the internet? “Don’t worry about it, it’s just going to change the world,” Suzie tells the boys. Of course, of all the nerds, “certified genius” Suzie would be the one who can basically see the future.
"Chapter 7: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab"
Steve is losing a battle against the Demobats, but his friends are there to help. El is also facing her fears, and we finally see the massacre day play out.
The cops—who have picked up Max, Dustin and Lucas, out after the police-mandated curfew—question them. Nancy bandages shirtless Steve, and there’s plenty of tension. The teens make a plan: go to Nancy’s for guns to use against the Upside Down’s beasts.
In Hawkins, Dustin and Lucas fill in Erica and realize that Vecna is opening gates by using his psychic connection.
Nancy makes it to her Upside Down bedroom, but the space is frozen in time on November 6, 1983, the day the original gate opened. So no guns. They can also hear Dustin theorizing with Lucas and Erica—and send an S.O.S. through the lights with Morse Code.
In Russia, Murray pretends to be Yuri, transporting a gagged Yuri and Joyce into the prison. They watch as Hopper and the other prisoners take on the Demogorgon.
Henry encourages Eleven to escape, under his instruction. “It is time you are free from this Hell,” he tells her.
Dustin, Erica, Lucas and Max contact the teens and sneak away from the house while the cops are busy. In the past, Henry shows Eleven the inhibitor weakening him. She removes it.
Hopper uses his fire in the fighting pit, but Murray and Joyce are forced to take action, breaking their cover. It works, and Joyce and Hopper embrace.
In the Upside Down, the teens bike to the rift in the Munson trailer. Dustin pokes through and they begin to climb out. But Nancy doesn’t make it. Vecna takes her into his Mind Lair instead.
In El’s mind, Henry reveals his “001.” He massacres everyone. As One tells an upset Eleven his family story, Nancy watches it play out in the Mind Lair.
“Join me,” One tells Eleven. She refuses. During their showdown, we see El open the first gate to the Upside Down, pushing One through it, where he transforms into Vecna. Shivers!
Retro Reference
Dustin, Lucas and Erica use a Lite Brite to contact their pals in the Upside Down. Not only is it a creative solution but an awesome throwback to the classic toy.
"Chapter 8: Papa"
Nancy is deep in Vecna’s clutches. As she flees, Vecna restrains her, saying, “I want you to tell Eleven everything you see.” She sees a giant rift, tearing Hawkins in two.
In Russia, Joyce and Hopper have a sweet reunion, but it’s cut short by the Demogorgon roaming loose in the prison.
Eleven, after nearly dying from her memory journey, regains her powers. Brenner finally briefs her on Vecna/One/Henry. “With each victim he takes, Henry is chiseling away at the barrier that exists between our two worlds,” says Brenner.
Elsewhere, Will gives Mike a pep talk. Mike is scared he’s going to lose El, but Will assures him he’s the group’s heart. At the same time, Will’s heart is breaking.
The gang realizes that Vecna is one kill away from his goal—four kills creates four gates. Nancy wants to go back down and kill Vecna. Max offers to be the bait.
In Russia, Hopper, Joyce, Murray and Enzo want Yuri to take them to America, but his plane is a deathtrap. El, too, wants to go to Hawkins. Brenner doesn’t approve.
Outside of Hawkins, the gang visits gun store the War Zone. The basketball team is there; Robin spies crush Vicki kissing her boyfriend. But they load up on weapons.
In the desert, Argyle, Jonathan, Mike and Will are lost looking for Project Nina’s location. Sullivan and the military swarm the base first. Brenner and El fight; he collars her but tries to carry her away from the invaders. They shoot Brenner down as he runs through the desert, carrying El. Just as the military is about to shoot her too, the pizza van peels in. El takes down a copter, and then leaves with the boys. She says they need to get to Hawkins—tonight.
Mixtape Moment
Journey‘s hit “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” plays as Max and the gang step up to the Creel house, preparing for their takedown against Vecna. It’s a breathtaking scene that nicely sets up the battle to come in the final episode.
"Chapter 9: The Piggyback"
Before the kids go into battle mode, we see Joyce and Hopper talking about their date—they happily kiss.
In Hawkins, the plan is set: Max, with Lucas and Erica, will draw Vecna to her, putting him in his psychic stasis mode. Dustin and Eddie will distract the Upside Down’s Demobats while Nancy, Steve and Robin sneak into Vecna’s lair and set his body on fire.
Elsewhere, El and the boys can’t make it back to Hawkins, but El thinks she can “piggyback” in Max’s mind, helping protect her from Vecna. Argyle takes them to a Surfer Boy Pizza to build a sensory deprivation tank.
Jason is tipped off about the gang at Creel house. In Russia, Hopper gets a message from Owens’ people. Hopper and Joyce want to break back into the Russian prison and destroy any Upside Down remnants, hurting the hive mind and giving the kids an upper hand.
El mindwalks to Max, and watches as her friend confesses her darkest sins to Vecna, but when El tries to piggyback, she winds up in a memory.
In the Upside Down, Eddie plays Metallica on the roof of his trailer to lure the Demobats away from Vecna’s side. Max imagines the Snow Ball to keep Vecna at bay, but it doesn’t work. Thankfully, El comes to her rescue just as Vecna is about to take her friend.
Jason makes it up to the Creel attic, where Lucas guards Max. They fight. Hopper is bait for the Demogorgon in the prison. Eddie sacrifices his life to the Demobats to buy more time for the others. Dustin is devastated.
El and Vecna face off, but he has the upper hand. He sends El into his Mind Lair, so she can watch him kill Max. First, he explains to El how he transcended his human form in the Upside Down, using the Mind Flayer. Max’s bones begin to break. But Mike inspires El to fight back, and she throws Vecna. All over, we see successes: The Russian Demogorgon is defeated, Vecna’s body ignites. It’s not enough. Max is terribly hurt. Massive rifts open across Hawkins.
Two days later, everyone’s back in town. Most lived to fight another day.
Mixtape Moment
Eddie plays Metallica’s 1986 song “Master of Puppets” to lure the Demobats in the Upside Down. It’s an awesome moment for the high school thrasher, but unfortunately, he does not survive his time in the underworld.
For an extended celebration of Stranger Things, from a Season 5 preview to must-see photos and more, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s Stranger Things: The Final Chapter special issue, available for pre-order online now and on newsstands Friday, November 14.
Stranger Things, Season 5 Volume 1, Premiere, November 26, 2025, Netflix
Stranger Things, Season 5 Volume 2, Premiere, December 25, 2025, Netflix
Stranger Things, Season 5 Finale, Premiere, December 31, 2025, Netflix and Select Theaters
Get Inside the Upside Down
Get absolutely everything about Stranger Things in your inbox!
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services