Hold on tight, because 'Stranger Things' is about to get even wilder! After nearly a decade since its debut, and with Season 5 looming on the horizon, many of us are struggling to remember all the twists, turns, and terrifying creatures from Hawkins, Indiana. Don't worry, we've got you covered. We've plunged back into the Upside Down and rewatched the entire series, so you don't have to!
Back when 'Stranger Things' first graced our screens, Barack Obama was still in the White House, and music icons like David Bowie and Prince were still with us. It's been a long time, and a lot has happened both on and off-screen.
Now, after a wait that felt longer than a Demogorgon's lifespan, the first four episodes of the highly anticipated fifth and final season drop on November 26th. The creators have promised that the ending will bring everything full circle, tying back to the very first season. And speaking of the first season, remember how young the cast was? Some of the child actors are now married or even starting families of their own! Talk about a time warp!
If your memory of the Upside Down is a little hazy, you have two choices: spend your Thanksgiving break binge-watching all four seasons (again!), or dive into our comprehensive recap of the entire 'Stranger Things' saga. We'll break down all the major storylines and unresolved mysteries, setting you up perfectly for Season 5.
Season 1: Where it All Began
It all kicks off with the mysterious disappearance of Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp). After a night of playing Dungeons & Dragons at his friend Mike Wheeler's (Finn Wolfhard) house, Will vanishes without a trace while biking home.
A frantic search ensues, and Will's body is seemingly discovered in a quarry. But his mother, Joyce (Winona Ryder), refuses to believe he's gone. She's convinced he's still alive and trying to communicate with her from another dimension. Jim Hopper (David Harbour), the town's police chief, initially dismisses Joyce's claims, but fueled by his own grief over the loss of his daughter Sara to cancer, he starts to see that her fears may be justified when he discovers the body in the morgue is a fake.
The truth is far stranger than anyone could have imagined. Will has been taken to the Upside Down, a terrifying alternate dimension. The portal to this dimension lies hidden within the Hawkins National Laboratory, a government facility run by the enigmatic Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine).
Enter Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), a young girl with extraordinary telekinetic powers. She's escaped from the lab, where she was subjected to brutal experiments. Lost and alone, she stumbles upon Mike and his friends, Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin). The boys take her in, vowing to protect her from the government agents hunting her down – think 'E.T.', but with more psychic powers.
As they navigate the dangers together, Eleven and Mike develop a sweet, innocent, and powerful connection, culminating in their first kiss.
Meanwhile, Joyce and Hopper delve deeper into the mystery of Will's disappearance. Their investigation leads them to Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins), Eleven's biological mother, who is now in a catatonic state. Terry's sister reveals a shocking truth: years ago, Terry participated in a secret CIA program called MKUltra, unaware that she was pregnant. Dr. Brenner kidnapped Terry's daughter, whom he named Jane (Eleven), at birth, faking a miscarriage. Brenner even lied to Eleven, telling her that her mother died during childbirth. Terry knows the truth, but she's unable to communicate it.
And this is the part most people miss: It is revealed that when Eleven was a test subject at the lab, she made psychic contact with a creature from the Upside Down, the Demogorgon. By doing so, she unintentionally opened the gate to the Upside Down.
Mike's older sister, Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), is on a mission of her own: finding her best friend, Barb Holland (Shannon Purser), who vanished after a party at Nancy's boyfriend Steve Harrington's (Joe Keery) house. Sadly, Barb met a gruesome end in the Upside Down, becoming a victim of the Demogorgon. Nancy teams up with Will's older brother, Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), to investigate, sparking jealousy and tension with Steve.
In the season finale, Joyce and Hopper bravely venture into the Upside Down to rescue Will. They succeed in bringing him back home. The Demogorgon seemingly kills Dr. Brenner, and Eleven, in a heroic act, appears to sacrifice herself to destroy the creature.
Season 2: New Monsters, Deeper Connections
Eleven lives! The season picks up immediately after the events of Season 1. Eleven escapes from the Upside Down and is found by Hopper, who hides her in a secluded cabin to protect her from those who would exploit her powers.
Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will welcome a new member into their group: Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), who moves to Hawkins with her stepbrother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery). But Will is haunted by visions of the Upside Down and a massive shadow monster, which the kids name the Mind Flayer.
It turns out that Will is possessed by the Mind Flayer, which is using him as a spy in the real world. An army of creatures from the Upside Down, all connected to the Mind Flayer through a hive mind, begins to attack Hawkins. Joyce's new boyfriend, Bob (Sean Astin), tragically dies while trying to help the group.
Eleven embarks on a journey of self-discovery, leaving the cabin to find her mother, Terry, who remains catatonic. Through flashbacks, we learn that after Brenner kidnapped Eleven, Terry stormed the Hawkins Lab, armed and determined to rescue her daughter. She found Eleven in a room with a rainbow painted outside the door, but she was quickly subdued, and Brenner subjected her to electric shock therapy, causing irreversible brain damage.
Eleven then seeks out Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), another former test subject from Hawkins Lab, also known as Eight.
Kali leads a group of outcasts who are hunting down those involved in the experiments at the lab. She gives Eleven a punk makeover and tries to recruit her into her gang. But when they track down a former employee of Dr. Brenner, Eleven can't bring herself to kill him. The man reveals that Brenner is still alive.
Eleven ultimately returns home, reuniting with her friends and realizing they are in danger. Hopper and Eleven reconcile, and the group saves Will by using heat to drive the Mind Flayer out of his body. Eleven then uses her powers to seal the gate to the Upside Down. In a heartwarming moment, Hopper obtains a birth certificate for Eleven, giving her the legal name Jane Hopper.
Other key developments in Season 2 include Nancy and Jonathan growing closer after she and Steve break up, Steve forming an unexpected bond with Dustin and discovering his knack for babysitting, and Lucas and Max developing romantic feelings for each other. Nancy also finds justice for Barb, with the help of conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman), by forcing government officials to acknowledge their involvement in her death.
Season 3: Summer Heat and Russian Secrets
As Season 3 unfolds, Eleven and Mike are officially a couple, much to the dismay of Hopper, who tries to keep them apart. Mike starts to distance himself from Eleven after Hopper threatens him, leading Eleven to break up with him and bond with Max over their relationship drama.
Meanwhile, at the Starcourt Mall, the new hotspot in Hawkins, Steve works at an ice cream parlor alongside Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke). Dustin, Steve, and Robin investigate a mysterious Russian transmission that Dustin intercepts while trying to contact his girlfriend, Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo), whom he met at summer camp.
Their investigation leads them to a secret underground base beneath the mall, where Russians are building a machine to reopen the gate to the Upside Down.
Nancy, now working at a newspaper and dating Jonathan, starts investigating reports of infected rats. This leads them to a much larger problem: Max's stepbrother, Billy, is possessed by the Mind Flayer and serving as its new host, much like Will was in Season 2. Under the Mind Flayer's control, Billy kidnaps people and brings them to the creature, which has taken the form of a giant, spider-like monstrosity made of rat flesh.
With Billy's help, the Mind Flayer assembles an army of people whose minds it has taken over, known as the Flayed. The Flayed start melting into goop and merging with the creature's body, making it even larger and more powerful. The Mind Flayer attacks Eleven and leaves a piece of itself inside her leg, which she is forced to remove. Eleven helps Billy fight against the Mind Flayer's control, and he ultimately sacrifices himself to save her life, dying in front of a distraught Max.
Simultaneously, Joyce, Hopper, and Murray infiltrate the Russian base and destroy the machine, closing the gate to the Upside Down. This seemingly kills the Mind Flayer's physical body (though it remains alive in the Upside Down). But Hopper is seemingly killed in the explosion.
Three months later, with Hopper presumed dead, Joyce, Will, and Jonathan move to California. Eleven, who lost her powers during the battle with the Mind Flayer, goes with the Byers family, but not before telling Mike she loves him.
On the romantic front, Robin comes out to Steve after he confesses his feelings for her, and Joyce finally agrees to go on a date with Hopper, before his apparent death intervenes.
Season 4: The Most Terrifying Season Yet
Season 4 is the most complex and plot-heavy season to date and was released in two volumes. (Season 5 will be released in three volumes, beginning the day before Thanksgiving, then on Christmas and New Year's with the series finale.)
Eight months after Season 3, Joyce, Will, Jonathan, and Eleven are living in California. In Hawkins, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas have joined a Dungeons & Dragons group called Hellfire Club, led by Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). Max has broken up with Lucas and is grappling with Billy's death. During spring break, Mike visits Eleven in California, but she still hasn't regained her powers.
During this time, Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser), who became the director of Hawkins Lab after Dr. Brenner, finds Eleven. He warns her that Hawkins is in grave danger and that restoring her powers is the only hope of saving the town. Eleven agrees to go with him, while Mike, Will, and Jonathan are forced to flee after soldiers come after them, seeking information about Eleven's whereabouts. Dr. Owens takes Eleven to a silo in Nevada, where she reunites with Dr. Brenner, who is very much alive.
Back in Hawkins, cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) begins experiencing disturbing visions and seeing a grandfather clock. Seeking relief, she tries to buy drugs from Eddie. But while at Eddie's trailer, she falls into a trance and is brutally murdered by a monster who becomes known as Vecna. Eddie flees the scene, and Chrissy's boyfriend, Jason Carver (Mason Dye), and his friends blame him for her death.
Vecna soon kills Fred Benson (Logan Riley Bruner), a student newspaper reporter and friend of Nancy's. Max starts having visions and realizes she's Vecna's next target. Nancy and Robin investigate the case of Victor Creel, a man accused of killing his family in the 1950s. Victor claims he's innocent and that Vecna murdered his wife and children.
They discover that a person can break free from Vecna's trance by listening to their favorite song. The gang plays Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" for Max, allowing her to escape Vecna's clutches. Lucas apologizes to Max for not recognizing her emotional pain, and they reconnect. Vecna then claims another victim: Patrick (Myles Truitt), one of Jason's friends.
As Eddie is labeled a suspect in the murders, Jason stirs up the town, claiming the Hellfire Club is a satanic cult and inciting a witch hunt.
Dustin theorizes that Vecna is killing people to open new gates to the real world from the Upside Down, meaning there are gates located at each of Vecna's victims' death sites.
Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie end up in the Upside Down after traveling through a gate at the bottom of the lake where Vecna killed Patrick. Inside, they discover that the Upside Down is stuck in the past, specifically on November 6, 1983 – the day Will went missing in Season 1 and the day Eleven contacted the Demogorgon, opening the original gate to the Upside Down.
Back at the silo, Brenner places Eleven in an isolation chamber, forcing her to relive repressed memories from her time as a test subject at Hawkins Lab. She remembers becoming friends with an orderly (Jamie Campbell Bower) who, like her, possessed telekinetic powers.
The orderly is revealed to be Brenner's first test subject, known as One.
But there's more: One is also Henry Creel, Victor Creel's son. As a child, Henry fell into a coma after using his powers to kill his mother and sister (murders for which his father was blamed). He awoke under Dr. Brenner's care. As Henry explains, Brenner wanted to control him, but when he realized he couldn't, he tried to recreate him through the original lab program that Eleven was a part of.
As an adult, before the events of Season 1, Henry manipulated a young Eleven into removing a chip in his neck that was suppressing his abilities. He then went on a killing spree in the lab. He planned to escape the lab and asked Eleven to join him, so they could reshape the world together. But she refused.
Instead, Eleven used her powers to banish Henry into the Upside Down, transforming him into Vecna. Dustin theorizes that Vecna is working for the Mind Flayer as its "five-star general," though a flashback later shows Vecna seemingly creating the Mind Flayer out of black particles in the sky. But here's where it gets controversial... Did Vecna create the Mind Flayer, or did he simply harness its power and influence?
Season 4 Vol. 2: The Final Showdown Begins
While traveling back to the real world from the Upside Down, Nancy falls under Vecna's trance and sees visions of Hawkins being destroyed by four gates. The group concludes that when Vecna kills again and opens another gate, Hawkins will fall. They devise a plan to use Max, still cursed by Vecna, as bait, while everyone else sneaks into his lair to kill him while he's distracted.
After reliving her memories of Vecna's origin, Eleven regains her powers. Brenner urges her to stay at the silo longer, but she calls him a monster. Military forces, who have been chasing Eleven all season because they believe she's responsible for Vecna's killings, raid the silo. As Brenner carries Eleven out, he is shot and seemingly killed.
Jonathan, Mike, and Will arrive, reuniting with Eleven before they all flee.
Meanwhile, Joyce is on a mission to rescue Hopper, who survived the machine explosion from Season 3 and is being held in a Russian prison camp.
Joyce and Murray infiltrate the prison, where the Russians have captured various Upside Down creatures. After escaping the prison, Joyce and Hopper reaffirm their plans for a dinner date at Enzo's and share a kiss.
Steve, Robin, Nancy, Eddie, and Dustin head to the Upside Down, while Max, in the real world, baits Vecna by going to the Creel house with Lucas. Once Max enters Vecna's trance, Dustin and Eddie loudly play music to draw the Demobats away from Vecna's lair, and Eddie is tragically killed. In California, Eleven enters a makeshift sensory deprivation tank and telepathically projects herself into Max's mind. Once inside, Eleven battles Vecna.
In Russia, Hopper, Joyce, and Murray break back into the prison to kill the Upside Down monsters and weaken Vecna, who is connected to them via a hive mind.
While Eleven is restrained, Vecna starts breaking Max's limbs. Nancy, Steve, and Robin enter Vecna's lair, setting him on fire and shooting him repeatedly. He falls out of a window, but when the trio goes outside, his body is gone. As Max dies, rifts begin to form in the fabric of reality, causing widespread destruction and killing Jason, who had burst into the Creel house during the final battle. Eleven uses her powers to bring Max back to life, but she remains unconscious and severely injured.
Two days later, Mike, Will, Eleven, and Jonathan return to Hawkins, where 22 people have been killed. The official story is that the rift in reality was caused by a deadly earthquake. Eddie, who is missing and presumed dead, is still the prime suspect in Vecna's murders, and Max remains in a coma in the hospital. Hopper returns home and reunites with Eleven, and Will says he can feel that Vecna is hurt, but alive.
Regarding personal relationships, it's heavily implied that Will is gay and harbors feelings for Mike. Robin develops a crush on a girl named Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) and starts bonding with her in the finale. Before she went into her coma, Max reconciled with Lucas, and they made plans to see a movie.
There are also hints that Nancy and Steve could rekindle their romance. Steve admits to Nancy that he dreams of starting a family with her, and Jonathan is secretly planning not to attend Emerson College with Nancy, as they had planned. By the end of the season, however, Jonathan still hasn't confessed his secret.
In the closing scene of Season 4, ominous pillars of smoke appear on the horizon, indicating the Upside Down is spreading into the real world, setting the stage for an epic final battle with Vecna.
The end begins in the first batch of episodes from Season 5, which hit Netflix on November 26th.
Now it's your turn! What are your predictions for Season 5? Do you think Vecna will be defeated? Will Eleven regain her full powers? And most importantly, will justice for Eddie finally be served? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
