Stranger
Things
Came
out; 2016
Seasons:
5
Where
to Watch: Netflix
Rated:
TV-MA
Rating
8.6/10
Rotten
Tomatoes
Tomatometer:
90%
Popcornmeter:
83%
Caution;
Spoiler Alert
Overall
Thoughts: We waited until Season 5 was all the way out then
decided to watch them all from the beginning. Most people have
already watched this as it was such a popular show.
I
was hooked from season one, although I found a few spots that could
have been taken out it was overall a great show that kept you're
attention from the start.
It
was certainly different from anything else out there. It had
character growth, a revolving plot and excellent transitions from
season to season
I
feel like there were things about the last season that could have
been either left out or added in, but more on that later
Since
Characters are pretty revolving I'm going to list them here:
Recurring
Winona
Ryder as Joyce Byers
David
Harbour as Jim Hopper
Finn
Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
Milly
Bobby Brown as Eleven
Gaten
Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
Caleb
McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
Natalia
Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
Charlie
Heaton as Jonathan Byers
Cara
Buono as Karen Wheeler
Matthew
Modine as Martin Brenner
Noah
Schnapp as Will Byers
Joe
Keery as Steve Harrington
Joe
Chrest as Ted Wheeler
Randy
Havens as Scott Clarke
Tinsley
& Anniston Price as Holly Wheeler
Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler ~ Season 5
Sadie
Sink as Max Mayfield ~ Introduced in Season 2
Dacre
Montgomery as Billy Hargrove ~ Introduced in Season 2
Paul
Reiser as Sam Owens ~ Introduced in Season 2
Priah
Ferguson as Erica Sinclair ~ Pops up in Season 1 but becomes a
regular Season 2
Brett
Gelman as Murry Bauman ~ Pops up in Season 1 but becomes a regular
Season 2
Maya
Hawk as Robin Buckley ~ Introduced in season 3 and becomes a regular
Jamie
Campbell Bower as 1/Vecna/Friendly Orderly/Henry Creel
Not-Recurring
Shannon
Purser as Barbara Holland
Ross
Patridge as Lonnie Byers
Aimee
Mullins as Terry Ives
Amy
Seimetz as Becky Ives
Sean
Astin as Bob Newby
Linnea
Berthelsen as Kali/Eight
Catherine
Curtin as Claudia Henderson
Jake
Busey as Bruce Lowe
Andrey
Ivchenko as Grigori
Cary
Elwes as Larry Kline
Alec
Utgoff as Alexei
Gabriella
Pizzolo as Suzie ~ In a few episodes during this season and later
Eduardo
Franco as Argyle
Grace
Van Dien as Chrissy Cunningam
Robert
Englund as Victor Creel
Joseph
Quinn as Eddie Munson
Amybeth
McNulty as Vickie
Linda
Hamilton as Dr Kay
Season
1
Premise:
November
6, 1983 in Hawkins, Indiana. At the Hawkins National Laboratory,
researchers force a young girl with psychokinetic abilities,
named Eleven,
to make psychic contact with an unknown entity. This contact
inadvertently creates a rift to a world known as the Upside
Down—a
decayed, time-frozen replica of Hawkins. A monstrous humanoid
creature escapes and abducts a boy named Will
Byers and
a teenage girl. Will's mother, Joyce,
and the town's police chief, Jim
Hopper,
search for Will. Meanwhile, Eleven escapes from the laboratory and
assists Will's friends, Mike
Wheeler, Dustin
Henderson,
and Lucas
Sinclair,
in their efforts to find Will
Overall
Thoughts:
This season kicks thing off to what will become one of the most
watched shows. Watching any first episode of any show you have no
clue the direction, the characters, the plot beyond the synopsis or
if it will even be any good.
This
show sucks you in from the start. I do know people who didn't like it
but most of us thought it was something totally different. The
characters were relatable with real world experiences, then Eleven
gets loose and everything changes.
Even
re-watching it for probably the 8th
time I couldn't stop. It was such an amazing season with so many
twists and turns
Episode
Guide
Episode
1: Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers
On
November 6, 1983, in Hawkins, Indiana,
a scientist is attacked by an unseen creature at a U.S. government
laboratory. 12-year-old Will
Byers encounters
the creature and mysteriously vanishes while cycling home from
a Dungeons
& Dragons session
with his friends Mike
Wheeler, Dustin
Henderson and Lucas
Sinclair. The
following day, Will's single mother Joyce
Byers reports
his disappearance to the police chief Jim
Hopper, who
starts a search but assures Joyce that almost all missing children
are quickly found. The lab's director, Dr. Martin Brenner,
investigates an organic substance oozing from the lab's basement,
claiming that "the girl" cannot have gone far. A nervous
young girl wearing a hospital gown wanders into a local diner. The
owner, Benny, finds a tattoo of "011" on her arm and learns
that her name is Eleven.
Brenner, monitoring the phone lines, sends agents to the diner after
Benny calls social services. The agents kill Benny, but Eleven
manages to escape using telekinetic abilities.
Joyce's phone short
circuits after
receiving a mysterious phone call that she believes is from Will.
While searching for Will in the woods, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas come
across Eleven.
Episode
2: Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street
The
boys bring Eleven to Mike's house, where they disagree on what to do.
Mike formulates a plan for Eleven to pretend to be a runaway and seek
help from his mother, Karen. Eleven refuses, however, revealing that
"bad men" are after her. Will's brother Jonathan visits his
estranged father Lonnie in Indianapolis to
search for Will, but Lonnie rebuffs him. Hopper's search party
discovers a scrap of hospital gown near the lab. After recognizing
Will in a photograph and demonstrating her telekinesis, Eleven
convinces the boys to trust her, as they believe she can find Will.
Using the Dungeons
& Dragons board,
Eleven indicates that Will is on the "Upside Down" side of
the board and is being hunted by the "Demogorgon"
(the creature). Mike's sister Nancy and
her friend Barbara 'Barb' Holland go to a party with Nancy's
boyfriend Steve
Harrington.
Searching for Will near Steve's house, Jonathan secretly photographs
the party. Joyce receives another call from Will, hears music playing
from his stereo, and sees a creature coming through the wall. Left
alone by the swimming pool, Barb is attacked by the Demogorgon and
vanishes.
Episode
3: Chapter Three: Holly Jolly
Barb
awakens in the Upside Down: a decaying, overgrown alternate
dimension. She attempts to escape but is attacked by the Demogorgon.
Joyce believes Will is communicating through pulses in light bulbs.
Hopper visits Hawkins Lab, and the staff permits him to view doctored
security footage from the night Will vanished, leading Hopper to
investigate Brenner and discover his involvement with Project
MKUltra and
that a woman named Terry Ives alleged years earlier that Brenner took
her daughter. Eleven recalls Brenner, whom she calls "Papa,"
punishing her for refusing to hurt a cat telekinetically. Steve
destroys Jonathan's camera after discovering the photos from the
party. Nancy later recovers a photo of Barb, simultaneously realizing
that Barb is missing. Returning to Steve's house to investigate,
Nancy finds Barb's untouched Volkswagen and encounters the Demogorgon
but manages to escape. Joyce paints an alphabetic board on her wall
with Christmas lights, allowing Will to sign to her that he is "RIGHT
HERE" and that she needs to "RUN" as the Demogorgon
comes through the wall. Believing Eleven knows where Will is, the
boys ask her to lead them to him. Eleven leads them, to their
frustration, to Will's house. From there, they follow emergency
vehicles to a nearby quarry just as Will's body is recovered from the
water.
Episode
4: Chapter Four: The Body
Joyce
refuses to believe that the body found at the quarry is Will's. Mike
feels betrayed by Eleven until she proves that Will is still alive,
channeling his voice through Mike's walkie-talkie.
The boys theorize that Eleven could use a ham
radio at
their school to communicate with Will. Nancy notices a figure behind
Barb in Jonathan's photo, which Jonathan realizes matches his
mother's description of the Demogorgon. Nancy tells the police about
Barb's disappearance. She later fights with Steve, who not only does
not care about Barb but only cares about not getting in trouble with
his father. Hopper has suspicions regarding the authenticity of the
body found in the quarry when he learns that the usual coroner was
sent home. Hopper confronts the state trooper who found it and beats
him until he admits he was ordered to lie. The boys sneak Eleven into
their school to use the radio, while Joyce hears Will's voice through
her living room wall. Tearing away the wallpaper, she sees him.
Eleven uses the radio to channel Will talking to his mother. Hopper
goes to the morgue and finds that the body is a fake, and, suspecting
that Brenner is responsible, breaks into the lab.
Episode
5: Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat
Hopper
searches the lab before being knocked out by the lab's guards. The
boys ask their science teacher, Mr. Clarke, if it would be possible
to travel between alternate dimensions, to which he answers that
there could be a theoretical "gate" between dimensions.
Hopper awakens at his house and finds a hidden microphone, realizing
that Joyce was right the whole time. The boys follow their compasses,
searching for a gate that could disrupt the Earth's electromagnetic
field.
Eleven recalls memories of being placed in a sensory-deprivation
tank to
telepathically eavesdrop on a Soviet man speaking Russian; while
listening, she accidentally came across the Demogorgon. Fearing
another encounter with the Demogorgon, Eleven redirects the
compasses. Lucas misinterprets this as an act of betrayal, leading
Mike and Lucas to fight and Eleven to telekinetically fling Lucas
away from Mike. While Dustin and Mike tend to the unconscious Lucas,
Eleven runs off. Nancy and Jonathan formulate a plan to kill the
Demogorgon. While searching in the woods, they come across a small
gate to the Upside Down. Nancy crawls through it but inadvertently
draws the Demogorgon's attention. Jonathan unsuccessfully tries to
look for Nancy, as the gate to the Upside Down begins to close.
Episode
6: Chapter Six: The Monster
After
finding the small gate, Jonathan pulls Nancy back through the gate.
That night, Nancy is afraid to be alone and asks Jonathan to stay in
her bedroom. Steve, attempting to reconcile with Nancy, sees them
together through her bedroom window and assumes they are dating.
Joyce and Hopper track down Terry Ives, who is catatonic and tended
by her sister Becky. Becky explains that Terry was a Project
MKUltra participant
while unknowingly pregnant and that Terry believes Brenner kidnapped
her daughter Jane at birth due to her supposed telekinetic
and telepathic abilities.
Nancy and Jonathan stockpile weapons to kill the Demogorgon,
theorizing that it is attracted by blood. Steve is brutally beaten up
in a fistfight with Jonathan after he insults Will and calls Nancy a
slut. Jonathan is arrested and held at the police station for beating
up Steve and inadvertently punching one of the responding officers in
the face while Steve's group flees. Eleven walks into a grocery store
and shoplifts several boxes of Eggo waffles. Searching for Eleven,
Mike and Dustin are ambushed by two bullies, Troy and James, who try
to kill Mike. Mike is rescued by Eleven, who uses her powers to break
Troy's arm. Eleven collapses and recalls being asked by Brenner to
contact the Demogorgon and, in her terror, inadvertently opening the
gate. She tearfully admits to Mike and Dustin that she is responsible
for allowing the Demogorgon to enter this dimension. Lucas sees
agents, who have tracked down Eleven, preparing to ambush Mike's
house.
Episode
7: Chapter Seven: The Bathtub
Lucas
warns Mike that agents are searching for Eleven. Mike, Dustin, and
Eleven flee the house while Brenner and his agents chase the kids
using vans. Eleven telekinetically flips one of the vans that block
their path as the kids escape. Lucas reconciles with Mike and Eleven,
and the kids hide in the junkyard. Nancy and Jonathan reveal their
knowledge of the Demogorgon to Joyce and Hopper. Hopper learns from
Troy that Eleven is with the kids. The kids, teens, and adults all
meet at the Byers' house, where Joyce and Hopper realize that Eleven
is Jane Ives. The group asks Eleven to search for Will and Barb
telepathically, but her earlier feats have weakened her. They break
into the middle school and build a makeshift sensory deprivation tank
to amplify Eleven's powers. After telepathically entering the Upside
Down again, Eleven finds Barb dead and Will alive, hiding in the
Upside Down version of his backyard fort. Realizing that the gate is
in the basement of the lab, Hopper and Joyce break into the lab and
are apprehended by security guards. Nancy and Jonathan sneak into the
police station to retrieve the weapons they purchased previously,
planning to lure and kill the Demogorgon. In the Upside Down, the
Demogorgon breaks into Will's fort.
Episode
8: Chapter Eight: The Upside Down
Hopper,
haunted by the death of his daughter Sara from cancer years earlier,
gives up Eleven's location to Brenner, who in exchange allows Hopper
and Joyce to enter the Upside Down to rescue Will. Nancy and Jonathan
cut their hands to attract the Demogorgon at the Byers' house. Steve,
intending to apologize to Jonathan about their fight, arrives just as
the Demogorgon appears. Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan fight the
Demogorgon and light it on fire, forcing it to retreat back into the
Upside Down. Meanwhile, Eleven and the boys hide in the middle school
when Brenner and his agents arrive to kidnap Eleven; she kills most
of them before collapsing from exhaustion. As Brenner and his
remaining agents pin Eleven and the boys down, the Demogorgon
appears, attracted by the dead agents' blood, and attacks Brenner and
the remaining agents as the boys escape with Eleven. Hopper and Joyce
enter the Upside Down's version of the Hawkins library, where they
encounter several corpses of the Demogorgon's victims, including
Barb, and find Will unconscious with a tendril down his throat.
Hopper revives him using CPR after
removing the tendril. The Demogorgon corners the kids, but Eleven
recovers from her exhaustion and disintegrates it, causing them both
to disappear. Will recovers in the hospital, reuniting with his
family and friends. One month later, it is Christmas and Nancy is
back together with Steve, and both are friends with Jonathan. Will
coughs up a slug-like creature and has a vision of the Upside Down,
but hides this from his family.
Season
2
Premise:
In
the fall of 1984, one year after his disappearance, Will
Byers and
the town of Hawkins, Indiana, once again find themselves as the
target of the Upside
Down.
A mysterious plague begins
to consume pumpkin patches around the town during Halloween season.
During this, Will perceives a large and many-armed shadow entity,
which the party eventually names the "Mind
Flayer",
that is able to possess him after an attack. Meanwhile, the larger
group, including Mike
Wheeler, Lucas
Sinclair and Dustin
Henderson encounter
"Demogorgon dogs" or "Demodogs",
which terrorize the citizens of Hawkins. Will's family and friends
alongside Jim
Hopper,
Mike's sister Nancy,
Nancy's boyfriend Steve
Harrington, Californian newcomer Max
Mayfield and
a missing Eleven,
must join forces to contain the threat.
Overall
Thoughts:
The first season was so big, it was hard to know how they were going
to top it. The magic of being new was gone with this season however
it still kept you on edge. We were introduced to Max and Billy.
We
are also more introduced to Murry, he made a pop up in season one but
becomes a recurring character in this season
This
season was also a little brighter because it was in the “real
world”.
We
had great character development from the first season we also find
out the fate of Eleven
I
felt like they could have changed the sister, meeting Kali was
important to this story line, but it was later so now I understand
why it was included.
Episode
Guide
Episode
1: Chapter One: Mad Max
On
October 28, 1984, a woman with the power to make people see things
and with a tattoo reading "008" on her arm is part of a
gang that robs a bank in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania and
flee the cops using those powers 008 have. Hawkins, Indiana, prepares
for Halloween. Maxine
"Max" Mayfield,
a new girl at school, captures Dustin and Lucas's
attention. Joyce is
dating her old high school classmate Bob Newby. Hopper investigates
a field of mysteriously rotting pumpkins and conspiracy theorist
Murray Bauman investigates people who saw Eleven,
believing her to be a Russian spy. Mike and Nancy deal
with losing Eleven and
Barb, and Will has
been having apparent hallucinations of the Upside Down, with an
enormous, tentacled shadow monster. Joyce and Hopper take Will to
Hawkins Lab to the new lab's director, Dr. Sam Owens, who has been
giving Will routine medical exams since his return. Owens theorizes
that Will's episodes are PTSD brought
on by the anniversary of his disappearance. The inter-dimensional
gate in the lab's basement has been growing, worrying Owens. Nancy
and Steve have
dinner with Barb's parents, who still believe their daughter to be
missing and who have hired Murray Bauman to find her. Hopper goes
home to a cabin in the woods where he secretly lives with Eleven.
Episode
2: Chapter Two: Trick or Treat
Flashbacks
reveal that after
killing the Demogorgon,
Eleven awoke in the Upside Down. She escaped back into the real
world, but hides in the woods after seeing government officials
interrogate Mike at his home. In present time, it is Halloween and
Eleven asks Hopper if she can go trick-or-treating. Hopper insists
that she remain hidden until he and Owens come up with an arrangement
that would allow her to live a normal life, which frustrates the
homebound Eleven. More pumpkin fields rot across town and Hopper
discovers an organic substance in the fields. Nancy wants to tell
Barb's parents the truth about her death, but Steve fears that
Hawkins Lab could come after them if they tell anyone the truth. They
attend a Halloween party where Nancy gets drunk and berates Steve for
his lack of empathy for Barb's parents. Before leaving, Steve
requests Jonathan to take Nancy home. The boys go trick-or-treating
and are later joined by Max. Will has another episode and tells Mike
about his visions, leading Mike to admit that he is trying to contact
Eleven. Dustin returns home after trick-or-treating and finds a
strange creature in his trash can.
Episode
3: Chapter Three: The Pollywog
Flashbacks
reveal that Hopper found Eleven in the woods and agreed to take care
of her in his grandfather's old hunting cabin if she agreed not to
leave the cabin. In the present, Bob encourages Will to face his
fears, not understanding the nature of Will's episodes. Nancy
persuades Jonathan to help her tell Barb's parents the truth. They
arrange a meeting with Barb's mother in a public park the following
day, fearing that Owens may be tapping the phone lines. The creature
Dustin found in his trash can is a small, slug-like animal that he
names D'Artagnan ("Dart"). He shows Dart to the other kids,
and Will concludes that it is from the Upside Down, as it makes a
noise similar to one Will heard in his visions. Hopper accuses Owens
of failing to keep the gate contained, becoming increasingly
concerned about the pumpkin fields. Frustrated with being stuck in
the cabin, Eleven leaves to look for Mike; at the school, she sees
him arguing with Max but thinks they are flirting. Will suffers from
another episode and follows Bob's advice to confront the shadow
monster, but it latches to him.
Episode
4: Chapter Four: Will the Wise
Joyce
and the kids awaken an unconscious Will. Joyce takes Will home, but
finds him acting strangely, scribbling furiously on pieces of paper
and demanding that the house be kept cold. Eleven returns to the
cabin and argues with Hopper over her sneaking out, destroying the
cabin's windows in a fit of rage. Joyce calls Hopper and together
they discover that Will's scribbles line up. Hopper recognizes that
the drawings represent vines, and he leaves. Nancy and Jonathan are
captured by Owen's agents when they try to contact Barb's mother and
are taken to Hawkins Lab, where Owens shows them the gate to the
Upside Down. He admits Barb died in the Upside Down, and says that he
wants to prevent foreign governments from learning of it. They are
released, and it is revealed that Nancy was secretly recording Owens.
An infatuated Lucas tries to get closer to Max, but her violent older
stepbrother Billy Hargrove intervenes. While cleaning up her mess the
following morning, Eleven finds Hopper's research of her biological
mother, Terry Ives, and tries to contact Terry with her powers. A
horrified Dustin finds that Dart has broken out of its cage, devoured
his pet cat, and is an infant Demogorgon, also known as a Demodog.
Hopper digs into one of the pumpkin fields and finds a tunnel
resembling the Upside Down.
Episode
5: Chapter Five: Dig Dug
Hopper
becomes trapped in the tunnels and passes out. Mike sleeps over at
the Byers' house to help Will recover. Will has a vision of Hopper,
leading Joyce to recruit Bob's help to determine its meaning. Bob
identifies Will's drawings as a map of Hawkins and the pumpkin field
as the place Hopper was going. Nancy and Jonathan take the tape of
Owens' admission to Murray, who realizes the public will not believe
the truth and suggests watering it down to make it more palatable.
Lucas reveals the truth of Will's disappearance to Max. Dustin traps
Dart in his storm cellar and enlists Steve's help to recapture it.
Eleven tracks down Terry and Becky Ives. Terry and Eleven are able to
communicate using their psychic powers, and Terry reveals to Eleven
that she tried to rescue her at the lab and was subjected to a
brain-damaging dose of shock
therapy by
Dr. Brenner. Eleven learns that there was another girl trained like
her. Joyce, Bob, Will, and Mike rescue Hopper, and scientists from
the lab soon arrive and set the tunnels on fire. As this happens,
Will collapses and begins convulsing and screaming in agony.
Episode
6: Chapter Six: The Spy
Will
is rushed to the lab, demonstrating memory loss. Owens theorizes that
the shadow monster is a virus that has spread to Will's brain and is
controlling him, and that the creatures from the Upside Down share a
hive mind. Therefore, damaging the tunnels will be lethal to the
now-infected Will. Nancy and Jonathan spend the night at Murray's,
who forces them to admit their feelings for each other. The following
morning, the trio send copies of the tape of Owens' admission to
numerous newspapers around the country. Nancy and Jonathan discover
Will's drawings upon returning to the Byers' house. Lucas and Max
regroup with Dustin and Steve, and the group attempt to lure Dart to
a junkyard. Max apologizes for being hostile to Lucas, explaining
that Billy's violence results from his father getting re-married to
Max's mother. Dart arrives in the junkyard flanked by a pack of
adolescent monsters. Steve and the kids are cornered until the pack
unexpectedly run away. Steve realizes that the Demodogs are being
summoned elsewhere. Will discovers a location that the monster
prevents him from seeing. Unaware that the monster is manipulating
Will, Owens sends a team to investigate. The team is killed by the
demodogs, who make their way into the lab.
Episode
7: Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister
Eleven
travels to Chicago,
Illinois, and finds the other girl from Terry's memories, named Kali.
Realizing they have similar tattoos and were both experimented on by
Brenner, Eleven and Kali consider themselves sisters. Kali can
project images into people's minds and leads a street gang to seek
revenge on Brenner. Eleven tells them that Brenner is dead, so the
gang decide to kill the man who tortured Terry instead. Kali helps
Eleven hone her abilities by demonstrating that channeling her anger
is the key to strengthening her powers. After Eleven uses her powers
to find the gang's target, named Ray, the gang travel to Ray's
apartment to kill him. Eleven begins to choke Ray with her powers,
leading him to reveal that Brenner is still alive. Eleven refuses to
kill Ray after seeing a photo of his two young daughters, who are
discovered at that same moment to be contacting the police. Eleven
stops Kali from killing Ray. The gang flees to the hideout, and Kali
insists Eleven either stay and avenge her mother or return to
Hawkins. Eleven has a vision of Mike and Hopper's plight at the lab
and decides to return while Kali and her gang escape from the police.
Episode
8: Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer
The
pack of Demodogs attack
the lab, killing all of the scientists minus Dr Owens. Will is
sedated, after Mike deduces he is a spy, so that Will doesn't know
where they are. Mike, Joyce, Hopper, Bob, Owens, and an unconscious
Will escape and take refuge in a room when the power goes out. Bob
leaves and manages to restore the power and open the doors. Mike,
Hopper, Joyce, and Will escape, with Owens staying to guide Bob.
After hiding from a Demodog, a broomstick falls to the floor,
triggering a chase by the Demodog. Bob is attacked and killed by a
second Demodog as Joyce watches in despair. The group is rescued by
Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and the other children. At the Byers house,
they name the monster the "Mind Flayer", who wants to
conquer their world and kill them all. They manage to get Will to
contact them in Morse
code by
telling him good memories of his childhood, with Will telling them to
close the gate. With a noise, Will detects where he is and sends a
Demodog. Eleven arrives and kills the Demodog with her powers and
reunites with Mike.
Episode
9: Chapter Nine: The Gate
Mike
is angry at Hopper for hiding Eleven from him. The group and Eleven
come up with a plan to close the gate without killing Will. Hopper
and Eleven go to the lab while Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy, and an
unconscious Will go to Hopper's cabin to burn the Mind Flayer out
from him. Meanwhile, Steve, Mike, Dustin, Max, and Lucas, stay behind
to stay safe. Billy arrives to find Max and has a fight with Steve;
after Steve was knocked out by Billy, Max sedates Billy and makes him
promise to leave them alone. In a cabin, Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy
turn up the heat and successfully drive the Mind Flayer out of Will.
While not part of the plan, Steve, Mike, Dustin, Max, and Lucas enter
the tunnels and burn the core and attract the demodogs; as they flee,
they encounter Dart, who lets them through after Dustin gave it
nougat chocolate. Hopper finds Owens injured in the lab. Eleven tries
to close the portal and the remaining demodogs try to stop her;
Hopper neutralizes them. Eleven manages to close the gate. A month
later, Owens facilitates Hopper's adoption of Eleven as Jane Hopper.
At the winter
formal "Snow
Ball", Max and Lucas dance and kiss, as do Mike and Eleven, and
Nancy dances with a heartbroken Dustin. In the Upside Down, the Mind
Flayer watches the group at Hawkins Middle School.
Season
3
Premise:
In
the summer of 1985, the popular new Starcourt Mall has caused many of
Hawkins' other stores to close. Jim
Hopper intervenes
in Mike
Wheeler's relationship
with his adopted daughter Eleven,
and Eleven becomes friends with Max
Mayfield.
Still recovering from Bob
Newby's
death, Joyce
Byers considers
moving out of Hawkins with her children. Magnetic disruptions lead
her to believe that the Upside
Down has
returned, though, and she enlists Hopper's help in uncovering the
cause. While Mike and Lucas
Sinclair attempt
to repair Mike's relationship with Eleven, Will
Byers begins
experiencing premonitions from the Upside Down even though
Eleven closed
the original gate,
believing the Mind
Flayer,
a many-armed shadow creature from the Upside-Down which previously
possessed him, is still alive in Hawkins. As Nancy
Wheeler and Jonathan
Byers investigate
the effects of the Mind Flayer's influence, Dustin
Henderson, Steve
Harrington,
newcomer Robin
Buckley,
and Erica
Sinclair begin
investigating a potential Soviet infiltration
of Hawkins. Meanwhile, Max's stepbrother Billy
Hargrove is
taken over by the Mind Flayer, who possesses other citizens of
Hawkins to fulfill its plan.
Overall
Thoughts:
Although overall I really liked this season. Loved the introduction
of Robin and the nostalgia of the mall. I like the story line of the
Mind Flyer but what I didn't like, was that the “secret Russian
lab” was literally under the mall.
I
understand that it went back to the Mayor and he knew, but come on.
This is a small town and not one person noticed that equipment was
brought it while this mall was being built?
I
loved how Erica was looped into the fold during “Operation Child
Enlargement” She turns out to be the sassy little sister that was
really needed to shake things up
Nancy
and Jonathan working for newspaper really brings you back to a time
when women weren't always taken seriously
I
also felt that this season was the start of “How disgusting can we
make things without making them to bad”
To
this day I still ask my kids “How many kids are you friends with”
Episode
Guide
Episode
1: Chapter One: Suzie, Do you Copy?
In
June 1984, scientists in the Soviet
Union attempt
to open a new gate to the Upside Down but fail. One year later,
around late June 1985, in Hawkins, the popularity of the new
Starcourt Mall has forced many local businesses to close, angering
townspeople. Eleven and Mike
Wheeler have
begun a romantic relationship, much to Jim
Hopper's
chagrin; he later threatens Mike into agreeing not to see her. Dustin
Henderson returns
from summer camp and, with Lucas
Sinclair's, Max
Mayfield's,
and Will
Byers's
help, sets up a radio tower to contact his new girlfriend from camp,
Suzie. Dustin's friends leave, and he intercepts a Russian radio
transmission. Will senses that the Mind Flayer may still be alive.
Rats flock to a mill and explode into an organic mass. Nancy
Wheeler and Jonathan
Byers work
as interns for the Hawkins Post. Nancy experiences sexism from her
older male staff. On his way to a rendezvous with Karen
Wheeler, Billy
Hargrove is
run off the road by an unseen creature and dragged inside the mill.
Episode
2: Chapter Two: The Mall Rats
Billy
is released from the mill after the creature induces a vision of the
Upside Down, which includes a doppelgänger.
Following Hopper's threat, Mike lies to Eleven, leading her to seek
Max's advice. Dustin reunites with Steve
Harrington,
who works at the mall's ice cream parlor with Robin
Buckley, a
former classmate. Nancy and Jonathan investigate the home of Mrs.
Driscoll, an elderly woman concerned about rabid rats eating her
fertilizer. Eleven and Max bond, going shopping at Starcourt Mall to
distract themselves from Mike and Lucas. Tormented by visions and
voices, Billy is guided by the creature into kidnapping his fellow
lifeguard, Heather Holloway, and bringing her to the creature. Eleven
breaks up with Mike after she sees him at the mall and realizes that
he has been lying. Joyce tries to figure out why magnets at her home
and workplace have stopped working. She goes to the home of Scott
Clarke, the kids' science teacher, to ask him why the magnets have
stopped functioning, accidentally standing Hopper up for a date.
Dustin, Steve, and Robin translate Dustin's intercepted Russian radio
message, surmising that it must be a code.
Episode
3: Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard
While
having a sleepover with Max, Eleven jokingly uses her powers to spy
on Mike, Lucas, and Will. She later spies on a suspicious and strange
Billy, who senses her presence. She and Max discover that Heather has
gone missing. Nancy and Jonathan find reports of missing fertilizer
and strange behavior among rats across town, and they discover Mrs.
Driscoll herself eating fertilizer in her home. After his attempts to
play Dungeons and Dragons like old times, Will fights with Mike and
Lucas as they are upset over Eleven and Max. He retreats to Castle
Byers, and upon recalling his childhood memories with his friends, he
destroys it. Robin decodes the Russian communication, which leads to
a shipment arriving at Starcourt that night precisely at 21:45; she,
Steve, and Dustin spot armed Russian soldiers handling the delivery.
Joyce forced Hopper to go to the abandoned Hawkins Lab to answer
queries they have about the falling magnets; when they investigate,
Hopper is attacked by Grigori, a Russian soldier. Eleven and Max
track down Billy and Heather at the home of Heather's parents. After
they leave, Billy and Heather subdue her parents, which Will senses
while Mike and Lucas find him, and he reveals to them that the Mind
Flayer has returned.
Episode
4: Chapter Four: The Sauna Test
Billy
and Heather bring her parents to the mill, where they are possessed
by the Mind Flayer, now a physical creature composed of flesh from
the rats. Hopper recalls Grigori meeting with town mayor Larry Kline;
he and Joyce force Kline to reveal that Starcourt Mall is a Russian
front for buying abandoned properties across Hawkins. At Starcourt,
Dustin, Steve, and Robin, alongside Lucas' sister Erica,
discover that the mall's loading dock is an elevator, which traps
them beneath the mall. Nancy and Jonathan are fired by their boss
Tom, Heather's father, for harassing Mrs. Driscoll; Nancy visits Mrs.
Driscoll at the hospital out of suspicion and watches her become
possessed by the Mind Flayer. Will reveals his connection with the
Mind Flayer to Eleven, Mike, Lucas, and Max, speculating that it has
possessed Billy. They devise a plan to trap Billy in the pool's sauna
to confirm he is possessed, but Billy escapes and nearly kills them
until Eleven subdues him. Billy returns to the mill, where dozens of
townspeople have since been possessed by the Mind Flayer.
Episode
5: Chapter Five: The Flayed
Hopper
and Joyce search one of the abandoned properties, discovering a
hidden laboratory. Grigori arrives to kill them, and they narrowly
escape with a hostage–a Russian scientist named Alexei–in tow.
Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica arrive in a Russian lab underneath
Starcourt and hide from Russian soldiers unloading crates from the
elevator. Attempting to find a communications room, the group
discover a large testing area where scientists try to force open a
portal to the Upside Down. As Alexei does not speak English, Hopper
and Joyce take him to Murray–the only Russian speaker they know–to
translate. Grigori tries to follow them but loses the trail. Nancy
and Jonathan regroup with Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Max, and Will and then
theorize that Billy and Driscoll are both possessed by the Mind
Flayer, who uses them to "flay" (possess) people to create
an army. The group decides to visit Mrs. Driscoll at the hospital to
learn more but discovers she is missing. They are attacked by Tom and
Bruce, who are now part of the Flayed and dissolve into a single
organic mass resembling the Mind Flayer after Nancy and Jonathan kill
them.
Episode
6: Chapter Six: E Pluribus Unum
Eleven,
who had just then reconciled with Mike, uses her powers to
incapacitate the bio-massed Mind Flayer, forcing it to flee to the
mill. In the Russian lab beneath Starcourt, Steve and Robin are
captured, drugged, and interrogated, but Dustin and Erica manage to
rescue them. With Murray translating, Hopper and Joyce hold Alexei
hostage, forcing him to reveal that the Russians are attempting to
access the Upside Down and that they are opening a portal beneath
Starcourt. Hopper calls Owens to warn the U.S.
Government of
the threat, but Joyce insists they return to Hawkins immediately,
fearing that their kids may be involved. Grigori corners Kline at
Hawkins' Independence
Day fair,
demanding he step up efforts to find Hopper. Mike argues with Max
about relying on Eleven's powers and inadvertently admits his ongoing
love for Eleven. To find the Mind Flayer, Eleven uses her powers in
an attempt to psychically communicate with Billy, learning of his
traumatic childhood and finding the Mind Flayer at the mill. Billy
senses Eleven's presence, giving the Mind Flayer access to her
location, and reveals that the Mind Flayer plans to kill her to
avenge her
closing the gate.
The Flayed converge on the mill, dissolving into an enormous organic
mass and merging with the Mind Flayer.
Episode
7: Chapter Seven: The Bite
Eleven
and the others determine that the Mind Flayer is coming for her,
since she was the one who previously closed the gate and thus its
only threat. Will senses the Mind Flayer approaching. The Mind Flayer
attacks the group, and though Eleven defends the others, the Mind
Flayer manages to injure her before they flee. Dustin and Erica hide
a drugged Steve and Robin in the Starcourt movie theater. Eleven's
group breaks into a supermarket to help treat her wounds and gather
more supplies. Dustin contacts them over a walkie-talkie to try to
explain the situation before he loses battery power. Eleven uses her
powers to find Dustin, and the group take off for the mall. Steve
admits that he has feelings for Robin, but she comes
out to
him as a lesbian.
Hopper's group make their way to the fairgrounds in Hawkins to find
the children, where they are spotted by Kline, who alerts the
Russians. Grigori fatally shoots Alexei in front of Murray. Murray,
Hopper, and Joyce evade several Soviet agents and learn the agents
are looking for the children at the mall. Eleven's group arrive at
the mall in time to stop the Russians from shooting Dustin's group.
Exhausted and in pain, Eleven collapses, her wound pulsing.
Episode
8: Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt
Eleven
rids herself of the piece of the Mind Flayer embedded in her wound,
rendering her powerless. Hopper's group arrives, and plans are made
to take Eleven's group to safety. At the same time, Hopper, Joyce,
and Murray destroy the machine, with Dustin and Erica navigating them
from his radio tower. Billy and the Mind Flayer trap Eleven's group
at the mall. The others attack the Mind Flayer with fireworks as
Eleven frees Billy from its control. Billy sacrifices himself to
protect Eleven, Mike, and Max. Hopper fights and kills Grigori,
getting trapped with the machine in the process. Out of time, Joyce
is forced to trigger an explosion, closing the gate, with Hopper
seemingly being disintegrated in the process. The Mind Flayer's
physical body dies as Dr. Owens arrives with military forces. Three
months later, the deaths are covered up, Starcourt is dismantled, and
a disgraced Kline is arrested. The Byers family and a still-powerless
Eleven prepare to move out of Hawkins. Eleven confesses her love for
Mike and they make plans to meet at Thanksgiving.
In Kamchatka,
Russian guards are instructed to feed a prisoner, but "not the
American", to
a captured Demogorgon.
Season
4
Premise:
Set
in March 1986, eight months after the events of the third season, the
fourth season is split between three different plot lines.
The
first plot line takes place in Hawkins, Indiana, where a series of
mysterious teenage murders begin haunting the town. Eddie
Munson,
leader of the Hellfire Club, Hawkins High School's Dungeons &
Dragons group, becomes a prime suspect in the murders after senior
cheer leading captain Chrissy Cunningham dies in his trailer,
so Dustin
Henderson, Lucas and Erica
Sinclair, Max
Mayfield, Steve
Harrington, Nancy
Wheeler,
and Robin
Buckley begin
investigating to clear Eddie's name. While other classmates, lead by
Jason Carver, hunt Eddie. The group discovers that the true
perpetrator is a powerful being who resides in the Upside
Down,
whom they dub "Vecna"
after a Dungeons
& Dragons character.
The
second plotline involves Mike
Wheeler visiting Eleven, Will
Byers,
and Jonathan
Byers at
their new home in Lenora Hills, California. Due to the events in
Hawkins and the imminent danger to her friends, Eleven, after being
arrested for assaulting her bully, goes with Dr.
Sam Owens to
a secret facility in the Nevada desert to regain her powers, an
operation titled the Nina Project, where she is reunited with Dr.
Martin Brenner and forced to confront her past in Hawkins National
Laboratory with the aid of an isolation
tank.
While the U.S. Military, lead by Lt. Colonel Jack Sullivan, is
simultaneously searching for Eleven, Mike, Will, Jonathan, and their
new friend Argyle attempt
to reach Eleven before she regains her powers.
The
third plotline follows Joyce
Byers and Murray
Bauman as
they venture to Russia upon learning that Jim
Hopper may
still be alive. Meanwhile, Hopper is held in a Soviet prison camp
in Kamchatka,
where he and the other inmates, including Dmitri Antonov, are forced
to battle a Demogorgon that
the Russians have captured.
Overall
Thoughts:
Although past seasons had a few story lines mixed in, it wasn't this
much. In this season we have the characters all over, we meet new
characters and learn the root of the upside down
Love
that they let Elle aka Jane be a regular girl for a few episodes.
They really had her try and she tried to hard to deal with the bully
the regular way
Murray
really came into the fold in this season, helping Joyce and getting
stuck with her trying to rescue Hopper
The
kids were in two different groups, working very much on the same
issues.
We
also get a very brief intro to Suzie's way of life while she helps
the boys find Elle.
The
only thing that bothered me about this season is at this point,
everybody knows what's going on with everybody else and the
Upside-Down. Why does Joyce lie? Had she at least told Jonathan what
she was doing it would have avoided some worry the group had
Episode
Guide
Episode
1: Chapter One: The Hellfire Club
In
a flashback to 1979, Dr. Brenner is experimenting on children with
supernatural abilities until a mysterious incident kills all the
children except Eleven.
In 1986, eight months after the events at Starcourt
Mall, Joyce, Will,
Jonathan, and Eleven have moved to California, where Eleven struggles
with the loss of her powers and is routinely bullied by other
students. Joyce receives a porcelain doll in the mail, seemingly from
Russia, and finds a hidden note stating that Jim
Hopper is
alive. In Hawkins, Mike and Dustin have
joined their high school's "Hellfire Club," a Dungeons
& Dragons club
run by the iconoclastic Eddie Munson. As a result, they miss seeing
Lucas win the basketball team's championship. Max,
who broke up with Lucas, struggles to grieve Billy's death. Chrissy
Cunningham, a student on the cheerleading squad, is tormented by
visions of her abusive mother and a ticking grandfather clock. While
buying drugs from Eddie, Chrissy is possessed and killed by a
sentient humanoid creature from her visions.
Episode
2: Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse
Hopper
survived the explosion beneath the Starcourt Mall, but was captured
by Soviet soldiers and sent to a prison camp in Kamchatka.
Joyce and Murray call the phone number listed on the note they sent
him and speak to Dmitri Antonov, a prison guard Hopper has bribed.
Antonov asks them to deliver a $40,000 ransom to his contact
in Alaska.
Mike flies to California to visit Eleven, where he and Will witness
her classmate Angela bullying her; Eleven eventually retaliates by
hitting Angela in the face with a skate. Max tells Dustin that she
saw Eddie fleeing the night Chrissy died. Along with Robin and Steve,
they track down the traumatized Eddie and explain the Upside Down to
him. Eddie and Dustin dub the entity that killed Chrissy
"Vecna." Nancy and
her fellow journalist Fred investigate Chrissy's death; Eddie's uncle
Wayne tells Nancy he believes the killer is Victor Creel, a Hawkins
resident who was institutionalized after allegedly murdering his
family in the 1950s. Fred is lured to the woods by visions of a
student he accidentally killed before Vecna murders him.
Episode
3: Chapter Three: The Monster and the Superhero
Sam
Owens is visited by U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sullivan, who
believes Eleven is responsible for Chrissy's death. Eleven is
arrested for assaulting Angela, but Owens takes her away, explaining
that Hawkins is in grave danger and that he has been working on a
program to help Eleven regain her powers. Eleven agrees to go with
him. Joyce and Murray fly to Alaska to deliver Hopper's ransom.
Hopper bribes a fellow inmate to break his shackles with a
sledgehammer. Nancy and Robin go to the library to research Victor
Creel and discover that Creel believes his family's murders were
committed by a demon, which they believe to be Vecna. Chrissy's
boyfriend Jason leads the basketball team to hunt for Eddie, whom he
believes is Chrissy's murderer, but Lucas abandons them when Jason
becomes violent. Max remembers that Chrissy had visited the school
counselor before being killed by Vecna. She steals Chrissy and Fred's
files from the counselor's office and discovers they suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms similar to her own. Max hears
Vecna call her by name and imagines a grandfather clock.
Episode
4: Chapter Four: Dear Billy
Joyce
and Murray deliver the ransom payment to Antonov's contact, Yuri, but
he drugs them and plans to hand them (and Hopper and Antonov) over to
the Russians for a larger profit. Hopper escapes from the prison camp
but is soon recaptured. Jonathan, Mike, and Will prepare to escape
from Wallace and Harmon, agents sent by Owens to watch them, but
armed soldiers attack the house. They escape with the help of
Jonathan's friend Argyle, bringing the wounded Harmon with them.
Nancy and Robin interview the imprisoned Victor Creel, who recounts
how his family was tormented and killed by supernatural forces while
he was being arrested for their murders. Max, fearing that Vecna is
about to kill her, writes letters to her friends and family and goes
to the cemetery to read Billy's letter at his gravestone. She is soon
possessed by Vecna and finds herself at an altar within her mind.
Steve, Dustin, and Lucas learn from Nancy and Robin that playing
music can break Vecna's spell, and they put Max's favorite song,
"Running
Up That Hill,"
on a cassette tape. This opens a portal through which Max narrowly
escapes Vecna's control.
Episode
5: Chapter Five: The Nina Project
Owens
takes Eleven to an abandoned ICBM silo
in Nevada, where he and Dr. Brenner have developed a specialized
isolation tank (called "NINA") that will allow Eleven to
access memories of her time with other kids at Hawkins Lab. After her
first time in the tank, Eleven tries to escape and briefly regains
her powers in the process, convincing her to continue the experiment.
In California, before dying, Agent Harmon gives the kids a pen
containing a phone number for Project NINA that connects to a modem;
Mike decides to enlist the help of Dustin's girlfriend, Suzie,
in Salt
Lake City.
After Yuri's betrayal, Hopper is imprisoned along with Antonov. While
flying to Russia, Joyce and Murray subdue Yuri and crash in the
desert. Max, Lucas, Steve, and Dustin reunite with Nancy and Robin
and investigate the Creel house. Inside, they encounter flickering
lights, which they attribute to Vecna's movements in the Upside Down.
Jason and his teammates locate Eddie attempting to escape in a boat
on Lover's Lake; Jason and Patrick swim after him. In the water,
Vecna kills Patrick in front of Jason and Eddie.
Episode
6: Chapter Six: The Drive
Eleven
relives memories of befriending a lab nurse, who warns her not to
trust Brenner. She also recalls being threatened by other test
subjects, leading her to believe she was responsible for the lab
massacre. Suzie helps Mike's group locate the coordinates for Project
NINA. Hopper and the other inmates are given a large feast, which
Hopper attributes to the Russians preparing to feed them to the
Demogorgon. He later manages to steal a lighter, remembering that the
Demogorgon's weakness is fire. Joyce and Murray force Yuri to take
them to a nearby town where he stores his belongings and decide that
Murray will impersonate Yuri to infiltrate the prison. Jason
galvanizes the residents of Hawkins at a town hall meeting against
Eddie's alleged Satanic
cult,
the "Hellfire Club." The Hawkins group finds Eddie; Dustin
notices his compass is malfunctioning and realizes there must be a
new portal to the Upside Down nearby. They trace the portal to
Lover's Lake, where Steve dives in to inspect it before being pulled
into the Upside Down by a tendril and surrounded by bat-like
creatures; Nancy, Robin, and Eddie jump in after him.
Episode
7: Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab
Joyce,
Murray, and Yuri enter Kamchatka and witness Hopper and his fellow
inmates fighting the Demogorgon. Hopper stops the creature with a
flaming spear while Murray and Joyce subdue the guards and open the
prison gates, allowing Hopper and Antonov to escape. Joyce and Hopper
are reunited. Dustin, Lucas, and Erica theorize that Vecna has
created a portal at the site of each murder, which they communicate
to the older teens in the Upside Down. Both groups meet inside
Eddie's trailer at the gate where Chrissy died. Robin and Eddie
emerge unharmed, but Vecna possesses Nancy. She discovers that he is
Victor Creel's son, Henry, who killed his mother and sister with his
psychokinetic powers before falling into a coma and being placed in
Brenner's care. Henry became Subject 001 in Brenner's attempts to
replicate his powers and later the orderly whom Eleven befriended.
Eleven finally remembers that Henry committed the lab massacre and
tried to kill her when she refused to help fulfill his murderous
ambitions; Eleven overpowered Henry and sent him to the Upside Down
where he eventually became Vecna.
Episode
8: Chapter Eight: Papa
Vecna
shows Nancy, who is still possessed by him, a vision of the future in
which Hawkins is torn apart by rifts before freeing her. The group
determines that Vecna needs four portals to implement his plan; Max
volunteers to lure Vecna into possessing her so the others can attack
him while he's distracted. Eleven, using her powers, learns of this
plan and gets Owens to arrange transit to Hawkins. However, Brenner
betrays and secures Owens and traps Eleven, insisting she needs to
complete her training. Eleven realizes that Brenner had been using
her for years to try to retrieve Henry from the Upside Down. Sullivan
and his forces arrive and kill all the staff; Brenner escapes with
Eleven, but is shot himself. Sullivan's crew tries to kill Eleven
from a helicopter, but she uses her powers to eliminate them just as
the California group arrives. As Brenner bleeds out in her arms, he
asks for her forgiveness; Eleven silently leaves him to die. In
Russia, Hopper, Joyce, Murray, Yuri, and Antonov escape the base
after discovering several more creatures from the Upside Down, as
well as a shadowy fragment of the Mind Flayer, which is being studied
at the prison.
Episode
9: Chapter Nine: The Piggyback
The
Hawkins group puts their plan into action: Max, Lucas, and Erica go
to the Creel House while Steve, Nancy, and Robin go to its Upside
Down counterpart to attack Vecna, with the bats being lured by Dustin
and Eddie. Eddie sacrifices himself in the process. Eleven's group
creates an isolation tank so she can enter Max's mind and fight
Vecna. However, Vecna overwhelms her and possesses Max, revealing to
Eleven that he has controlled the Upside Down since she sent him
there. Mike professes his love for Eleven, giving her the strength to
break Vecna's control over Max, but after Jason interferes, Max dies
from her injuries. Hopper, Joyce, and Murray re-enter the prison and
kill the remaining Demogorgons, weakening Vecna. Steve, Robin, and
Nancy set fire to Vecna's physical form and shoot him, seemingly
killing him. Eleven uses her powers to revive Max, but Max's brief
death allows Vecna's portals to open and pass through Hawkins,
killing Jason. Two days later, the town recovers from an
"earthquake." Everyone unites, while Max remains in a coma.
Will senses that Vecna is still alive, and the Upside Down begins to
invade Hawkins.
Season
5
Premise:
Set
in November 1987, a year and eight months after the events of
the fourth
season,
the group seeks to find and kill Vecna following
the opening of rifts throughout Hawkins. Their mission becomes
complicated when the
military establishes
a quarantine in town and begins hunting Eleven.
As the anniversary of Will
Byers'
disappearance approaches, the group must unite for a final battle
against the forces of the Upside
Down.
Overall
Thoughts:
This was bittersweet knowing it was it, it was done after this
season. All the waiting between seasons. Going in you wanted it to be
worth it, to have a big win for once.
Mrs.
Wheeler comes into the fold and finds out exactly what her children
have been up to, she almost looses her life in the process. Through
all season Karen & Ted have hilariously been the hang out house
and yet have no clue what's actually going on
We
found out why Max is unable to wake up, although it turns out to be a
good thing that she didn't.
We
also get to know Vickie more, we met her in the last season but
didn't really get to know her. She plays a vital role in everything
As
expected there were twists and turns but one major story line. The
only thing that drove me crazy is the cry speech that Will gives
about being Gay. I understand times were different and that couldn't
have been easy, however this scene was too overboard and could have
been cut down
I
very much loved the ending
Episode
Guide
Episode
1: Chapter One: The Crawl
While
hiding in the Upside Down in 1983, Will is
caught by a Demogorgon and is brought to Vecna,
who infects Will with a tentacle. In 1987, 19 months after the Rifts
incident, a
contingent of the US
military,
led by Dr. Kay and Lt. Robert Akers, have placed Hawkins under
quarantine and created a base camp within the Upside Down while still
on the hunt for Eleven,
who trains in hiding with Hopper and Joyce.
Will, Lucas, and Mike lay
low, though Dustin provokes
the school basketball team by continuing to honor
Eddie. Steve, Robin,
Jonathan, and Nancy work
at WSQK, a local radio station, where they relay coded messages to
the group about opportunities to sneak Hopper into the Upside Down,
which they call "crawls", to find Vecna's hideout. Dustin
is viciously beaten at Eddie's grave, causing him to miss the next
crawl, which goes awry when a Demogorgon attacks a military caravan,
forcing Hopper to take shelter within the Upside Down. Will
telepathically witnesses the attack and sees the Demogorgon head
towards the Wheeler residence just as it tears open a gate in the
bedroom of Mike and Nancy's younger sister Holly.
Episode
2: Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler
The
Demogorgon attacks and severely injures Mike and Nancy's parents,
Karen and Ted,
before disappearing with Holly to the Upside Down. Eleven follows the
Demogorgon through a gate into the Upside Down and finds Hopper. The
two then search for Holly until they encounter a giant wall
surrounding the edge of Hawkins. Jonathan accuses Steve of competing
for Nancy's attention before a bloodied Dustin finds them, while
Lucas continues tending to a comatose Max in hopes she will wake up.
As Karen and Ted remain hospitalized, Nancy and Mike theorize that
"Mr. Whatsit", Holly's imaginary friend, may be real and
involved in Holly's disappearance. Robin proposes using Will's
telepathic link to Vecna's hive mind to track Holly in the Upside
Down. Karen informs Nancy and Mike that Mr. Whatsit's first name is
Henry, whom they realize is Vecna's human form, Henry Creel. Will
discovers that his earlier visions were actually from Henry's point
of view as he stalked Holly, realizing he can know Henry's targets
before they are taken.
Episode
3: Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap
Henry
targets Holly's classmate and bully, Derek Turnbow, as his next
victim. Hopper and Eleven fail to break through the massive wall and
are ambushed by soldiers, but manage to overpower them. Hopper and
Eleven interrogate Akers, concluding that Dr. Kay is holding Henry at
the base. Will, Nancy, and Mike inform the group that Henry lured
Holly by claiming he was her imaginary friend, prompting them to
devise a plan to use Derek as bait to trap the Demogorgon, and
implant a tracker in it to reach Holly before more children are
taken. The group arms themselves using weapons smuggled in by Murray
and enlists Erica to drug Derek and his family. The team splits up,
transporting the unconscious family to an abandoned barn while
converting Derek's house into a trap for the Demogorgon. The plan
unravels when Derek wakes up and Will realizes the Demogorgon has
located his group. Meanwhile, Holly finds herself in Henry's
childhood home. In the nearby forest, she encounters Max.
Episode
4: Chapter Four: Sorcerer
Hopper
and Eleven infiltrate the military base, intending to kill Henry.
They defeat Dr. Kay and her soldiers, discovering that the captive
inside is Eleven's adoptive sister, Kali. Max explains to Holly that
they are trapped inside a psychic realm made of Henry's memories,
nicknamed "Camazotz"
by Holly, where Max has remained ever since her brief death. Will's
group is attacked by a Demogorgon until Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and
Jonathan chase it into the Upside Down. Meanwhile, the military
detains children in Hawkins who could be potential victims. Will
experiences a vision of Holly and three other children being
restrained by tentacles in Vecna's lair, with empty spots for eight
more. Will's group infiltrates the base to smuggle the children out
of Hawkins. However, Henry, in his Vecna form, and three Demogorgons
emerge from the Upside Down, slaughter most of the soldiers at the
Hawkins base, and kidnap Henry's targets, including Derek. Before
retreating into the Upside Down, Henry tells Will that he intends to
use the children, whom he calls "perfect vessels", to
reshape the world. Will then unlocks psychic abilities and kills the
Demogorgons to save Mike, Lucas, and Robin.
Episode
5: Chapter Five: Shock Jock
In
Camazotz, the kidnapped children awaken, and while most believe
Henry's claim that he saved them, Holly and Derek do not. Max and
Holly traverse Henry's memories of Holly to search for an escape as
Derek distracts him. Henry discovers the plan, threatens Derek's
family, turns into Vecna, finds Holly, and strangles Max. Will's
group reanimates a dead Demogorgon using the radio tower's voltage so
Will can reconnect to the hive mind and kill Vecna. Will possesses
Vecna's body, breaking his leg and speaking through him to tell Max
and Holly to run; Henry expels him from his mind soon after, causing
Will to pass out. In the Upside Down, Hopper and Eleven escape the
military base with Kali, who reveals Dr. Kay was using her blood,
just as Dr. Brenner used Henry's blood, in failed experiments to give
children powers. At Hawkins Lab, Dustin theorizes that the wall
surrounding the Upside Down is a protective shield that, if
destroyed, can weaken Henry. Nancy and Jonathan find a mysterious
sphere on the roof of the lab. Dustin finds Brenner's journal and
realizes he is wrong, but fails to warn the others before Nancy
shoots the sphere.
Episode
6: Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz
Dustin
explains to Steve that the Upside Down is not an alternate dimension
but a wormhole to
another realm, held together by a mass of "exotic
matter",
which they realize is the sphere on the roof. The exotic matter
detonates upon being shot, causing the building to begin melting;
Nancy and Jonathan become trapped in a collapsing room. Believing
they will die, they end their relationship on good terms; the melting
eventually halts. Max and Holly find a memory of a young Henry
killing a man in self-defense in a cave. Erica and Murray recruit Mr.
Clarke to help locate Dustin's group. Henry uses the unconscious Will
to track Max in the real world and sends Demodogs to kill her at the
hospital. Hopper, Eleven, and Kali reunite with the others in
Hawkins, and Eleven frees Will. At the hospital, Lucas, Robin, and
her girlfriend Vickie protect Max from the Demodogs, with Karen
ultimately saving them by detonating a laundry machine to kill the
creatures. Seeing her exit from Vecna's mind formed via Lucas's
music, Max tells Holly she needs to find her own way out and reminds
her of her past bravery, allowing both to escape separately.
Episode
7: Chapter Seven: The Bridge
Max
awakens safely in the real world, while Holly awakens inside Vecna's
lair and escapes through a gate, falling through the Upside Down
before being pulled back by Vecna. Erica, Murray, and Mr. Clarke map
Dustin's location in the Upside Down to the lab, and Eleven opens a
rift so the group can reunite. Dustin deduces that the Upside Down
was created when Brenner forced Eleven to contact Henry, and now
serves as a bridge to a separate realm, "the Abyss", which
Henry plans to merge with their world, likely that night. The group
decides to let Henry draw the worlds close enough to climb the WSQK
radio tower into the Abyss, rescue the children, and then destroy the
Upside Down with by detonating a time bomb near the exotic matter to
stop the worlds from merging. Max volunteers to guide Eleven through
Henry’s mind, and Kali insists on joining. Will comes out as gay to
the group, reasoning that confronting his fears weakens Vecna's hold.
Henry manipulates the kidnapped children into turning against Holly;
she is forced to join hands with the children and Henry, who puts
them in a trance.
Episode
8: Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up
As
the others make their way to the Abyss, Eleven, Kali, and Max enter
Henry's mind and stop him from merging the worlds, but he transforms
into Vecna, escapes, and tricks Hopper into breaking the link. Akers'
forces assault the lab and kill Kali; Eleven kills them in return.
Holly leads the other children out of Henry's mind while Eleven
enters the Abyss to fight Henry. Will witnesses Henry's past and
learns he was corrupted by a fragment of the Mind Flayer, which he
fully embraces despite Will's pleas. The Mind Flayer rises as a
giant kaiju,
which the group kills while Eleven and Will overpower Henry. The
group rescues the children, and Joyce decapitates a dying Henry. Upon
returning to Hawkins and detonating the bomb they placed in the
Upside Down, the group is arrested by Dr. Kay, but released when
Eleven chooses to stay behind in the collapsing Upside Down. 18
months later, life returns to normal; the young adults reunite,
Hopper proposes to Joyce, and the party graduate and finish
a Dungeons
& Dragons campaign.
Mike imagines their futures and theorizes how Eleven may still be
alive, with the others choosing to believe him.
