46 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Hopper and Joyce force town mayor Larry Kline to reveal that he helped Russians buy properties across Hawkins. At Starcourt, Dustin, Steve, and Robin enlist the help of Lucas’ sister Erica in order to access the suspicious shipping room. The four discover that the room is an elevator, sending them hurtling far beneath the mall. Nancy and Jonathan are fired by their boss - Tom Holloway, 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 fights with Lucas and Mike over their disinterest in playing Dungeons & Dragons, and flees to Castle Byers to be alone. Robin suspects the Russian message references a shipment arriving at the mall later that night; she, Steve, and Dustin watch armed soldiers oversee the delivery. Joyce convinces Hopper that the demagnetization is linked to the abandoned Hawkins Lab; upon investigating, Hopper is attacked by Grigori, the Russian operative. Max and Eleven track down Billy at Heather’s home; after they leave, Billy and Heather subdue her parents, and bring them to the mill to be possessed by the Mind Flayer. Mike and Lucas find Will, and Will reveals that the Mind Flayer is still alive. Will reveals his connection with the Mind Flayer to Mike, Lucas, Eleven, 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 pos-
47 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS possessed by the Mind Flayer. Hopper and Joyce search one of the Soviet-owned properties, discovering a hidden laboratory. Grigori arrives to kill them, and they narrowly escape with a hostage – a scientist named Dr. Alexei – in tow. Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica arrive in a Soviet base under Starcourt. Hiding from Russian soldiers, the group observe experimental technology forcing open a gate to the Upside Down. Hopper and Joyce take Alexei to Murray Bauman – the only Russian speaker they know – to translate Alexei’s speech; Grigori tries to follow the group but loses the trail. Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Mike, Lucas, Eleven, and Max theorize that Billy and Driscoll are possessed, or ‘flayed’ by the Mind Flayer; the group decide to visit Driscoll at the hospital to learn more, but Nancy discovers Driscoll is missing. Eleven reconciles with Mike while at the hospital. Nancy and Jonathan are attacked by Tom and Bruce; realizing Tom and Bruce are possessed by the Mind Flayer, Nancy and Jonathan decide to attack. After killing Tom and Bruce, the two melt and amalgamate into a single organic mass, becoming a monster. Eleven uses her powers to scare the monster away; it flees to the steel mill, and becomes part of the larger creature.
48 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Mind Flayer plans to kill her in revenge for closing the gate. The Flayed converge on the mill, where they are absorbed into the Mind Flayer’s proxy; the creature finally breaks through the roof and begins to hunt Eleven. In the secret base, Steve and Robin are captured, drugged, and interrogated, but Dustin and Erica 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 via a portal beneath Starcourt. Hopper tries to inform Dr. Owens, 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 love for Eleven. To find the Mind Flayer, Eleven uses her powers in an attempt to psychically communicate with Billy, learning of his troubled 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
49 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS At Hopper’s cabin, Will senses the Mind Flayer approaching. The Mind Flayer and Eleven attack and injure one another; while the creature is incapacitated, the group flee to safety. After breaking into a supermarket, the group treat Eleven’s wounds and gather supplies. Dustin and Erica hide a drugged Steve and Robin in the Starcourt movie theater; Dustin contacts Eleven’s group over walkie-talkie to explain the situation, but runs out of battery power. Eleven uses Eleven uses psychic projection to locate Dustin, and the group travel to 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. Eleven collapses, her wound pulsing.
50 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS of Hawkins. Mike and Eleven confess their love for each other and make plans to meet at Thanksgiving. In Kamchatka, Russian guards are instructed to feed a prisoner, but “not the American”, to a captured Demogorgon. 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. Hopper, Joyce, and Murray make their way to the machine, with Dustin and Erica navigating from Dustin’s 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 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 proxy dies as Dr. Owens arrives with military forces. Three months later, the deaths are covered up, Starcourt is destroyed, and a disgraced Kline is arrested. The Byers family and a still-powerless Eleven prepare to move out
51 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Dr. Brenner is experimenting on test subject 010 until a mysterious incident kills all of the subjects except Eleven. In 1986 — eight months after the events at Starcourt Mall — Joyce, Will, Jonathan and Eleven have moved to a new house in Lenora Hills, California, where Eleven struggles with the loss of her powers and is bullied by other students at Lenora Hills High School. In Lenora and in Hawkins, Jonathan and Nancy simultaneously discuss their struggling long-distance relationship with their friends - Jonathan with pizza delivery boy Argyle, and Nancy with her fellow The Weekly Streak reporter, Fred Benson. Joyce receives a porcelain doll in the mail which seems to originate from Russia, and after following Murray’s instructions to destroy it, finds a hidden note stating that Hopper is alive. In Hawkins, Mike and Dustin have joined the high school’s “Hellfire Club”, a Dungeons & Dragons club led by iconoclast Eddie Munson. As a result, they miss seeing Lucas win the basketball team’s championship game. Max, who has broken up with Lucas, struggles to come to terms with Billy’s death. Robin and Steve work at the Family Video, frequently discussing their love lives and Robin’s crush on band member Vickie. Chrissy Cunningham, a student on the cheerleading team, is haunted by visions of her abusive mother Laura Cunningham and a chiming grandfather clock. While buying drugs from Eddie, Chrissy is possessed and killed by a sentient humanoid figure from her visions. SEASON 4
52 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Hopper is shown in a flashback to have survived the explosion of the Key under Starcourt Mall, but is captured by Soviet soldiers and sent to a prison camp in Kamchatka. Joyce and Murray call the phone number on the note sent to Joyce and speak to “Enzo,” revealed to be Dmitri Antonov, a prison guard that Hopper has bribed. Antonov has them deliver a $40,000 ransom to his contact in Alaska. Mike flies to California to visit Eleven, where he and Will witness her being bullied by her classmates Angela and Jake at Rink-O-Mania; Eleven eventually retaliates by striking Angela in the face with a roller skate. Back in Hawkins, Max tells Dustin she saw Eddie run away the night that Chrissy died. With help from Robin and Steve, they locate the traumatized Eddie and explain the Upside Downto him; Eddie and Dustin name the entity that killed Chrissy “Vecna”. Nancy and Fred investigate Chrissy’s death; Eddie’s uncle Wayne Munson tells Nancy he believes the killer is Victor Creel, a Hawkins resident who was institutionalized after allegedly murdering his family in 1959. Fred is lured into the woods by visions of a student he accidentally killed before Vecna murders him.
53 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Dr. Owens is visited by U.S. Army commander Lt. Col. Jack Sullivan, who believes Eleven is responsible for Chrissy’s death. Eleven is arrested for assaulting Angela, but is intercepted by Owens, who explains that Hawkins is in grave danger and that he has been working on a program to help bring back Eleven’s powers; Eleven agrees to go with him. Joyce and Murray fly to Alaska to deliver the ransom for Hopper. In the prison camp, Hopper bribes a fellow inmate to break his shackles with a sledgehammer. Nancy and Robin go to the public library to look up information about Victor Creel and discover that Creel blamed his family’s murders on a demon, which Nancy and Robin conclude must be Vecna. Jason Carver leads Andy, Andy, Chance and the rest of the basketball team on a hunt for Eddie, believing he killed Chrissy, but Lucas abandons them. Max recalls that Chrissy visited the school counselor Ms. Kelley before being killed by Vecna, and steals Chrissy and Fred’s files from the counselor’s office. She learns that they suffered from PTSD symptoms similar to hers; suddenly, Max hears Vecna call her name and envisions a grandfather clock.
54 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Nancy and Robin interview an imprisoned Victor Creel, who recounts his family being tormented by supernatural forces and his daughter Alice and wife Virginia eventually being killed by them, with Victor being arrested for their deaths. Victor claims he was saved by the “voice of an angel”, which the girls surmise was the song Dream A Little Dream Of Me on the radio. Max, fearing her imminent death, writes letters to her friends and family and goes to the cemetery to read her letter to Billy by his grave. Joyce and Murray deliver the ransom payment to Antonov’s contact, peanut butter smuggler Yuri Ismaylov at Yuri’s Fish n’ Fly. However, Ismaylov drugs them, planning to turn them over to the Soviets - along with Hopper and Antonov - for a larger profit. Hopper escapes the prison camp but is soon recaptured. Agent Ellen Stinson, an ally to Dr. Owens, informs Jonathan, Mike, and Will that her colleagues Harmon and Wallace will protect them from Lt. Col. Sullivan, but Sullivan’s soldiers soon launch an assault on the house; the boys escape with the help of Argyle, bringing an injured Harmon with them.
55 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Dr. Owens takes Eleven to the Nina Project; an abandoned ICBM silo in Nevada, where he and Dr. Brenner have developed a specialized sensory deprivation tank (dubbed “Nina”) that will allow Eleven to access memories of her time with the other children at Hawkins Lab. After her first time in the tank, Eleven attempts to escape and briefly regains her powers, and Brenner convinces her to continue with the experiment. In California, before Agent Harmon dies, he gives the boys a pen containing a phone number for the Nina Project that connects to a modem; Mike decides to enlist the aid of Suzie in Salt Lake City. After Yuri’s betrayal, Antonov is imprisoned alongside Hopper. While flying to Russia, Joyce and Murray subdue Yuri and crashland in the wilderness. She is possessed by Vecna and sees herself inside his mind. Steve, Dustin, and Lucas learn from Nancy and Robin that playing music can break Vecna’s spell. They play Max’s favorite song, Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush, via her Walkman, opening a mental window through which Max returns to reality.
56 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS In Hawkins, Max, Lucas, Steve, and Dustin regroup with Nancy and Robin and decide to investigate the Creel House; inside, they encounter flickering lights, which they trace to Vecna’s movements in the Upside Down. Jason and his teammates locate Eddie trying to escape in a boat at Lover’s Lake; Jason and his teammate Patrick McKinney swim after him. While they are in the water, Vecna kills Patrick in front of Jason and Eddie. Eleven relives memories of befriending a lab orderly, who warns her not to trust Brenner. She also recalls being bullied by 002 and other test subjects, leading her to believe she was responsible for the lab massacre. Suzie helps Mike’s group locate the Nina Project’s coordinates. Hopper and the other inmates are given a large feast, which Hopper warns is to prepare them to be fed to a captured adult Demogorgon.
57 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Joyce, Murray, and Yuri enter Kamchatka and witness Hopper, Dmitri, and their fellow prisoners including Olegfighting the adult Demogorgon. Hopper holds the creature back with a flaming spear while Murray and Joyce subdue the guards and open the prison doors, allowing Hopper and Antonov to escape. Joyce and Hopper reunite. Dustin, Lucas, and Erica theorize that Vecna has spawned a gate at the site of each murder, which they communicate to Steve’s group in the Upside Down via electricity. Both parties reunite inside Eddie’s trailer, where Chrissy died; Robin and Eddie safely exit, 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, later serving as the orHe later manages to pocket a lighter, recalling that the Demogorgon’s weakness is fire. Joyce and Murray force Yuri to take them to a nearby town where he stores his goods, and decide to have Murray pose as Yuri to infiltrate the prison. Jason rallies Hawkins’ residents at a Town Hall meeting organized by Chief Powell, Officer Callahan and Officer Glenn Daniels against Eddie’s supposed Satanic cult, the Hellfire Club. Steve’s group finds Eddie; Dustin notices his compass malfunctioning and realizes there must be a new gate to the Upside Down nearby. They trace the gate to Lover’s Lake, and dub the gate “Watergate”, where Steve dives down to inspect it before being yanked into the Upside Down by a vine and attacked by bat-like creatures. Nancy, Robin, and Eddie dive in after him.
58 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Vecna shows Nancy a vision of the future where Hawkins is torn apart before releasing her. The group determine that Vecna needs four gates to enact his plan; Max offers to lure Vecna into possessing her so the others can attack him while he is distracted. Eleven, using her powers, learns of this plan and gets Owens to arrange transit to Hawkins. However, Brenner locks up Dr. Owens and drugs Eleven, insisting that she needs to complete her training. Eleven accuses Brenner of using her to try to recover Henry from the Upside Down. as the orderly that befriended Eleven. Eleven finally remembers Henry committing the lab massacre and trying to kill her when she refused to help fulfill his ambitions. Eleven is revealed to have overpowered Henry and sent him to the Upside Down, where he became Vecna. Sullivan and his forces arrive at the site and kill the staff except Dr. Owens; Brenner flees with Eleven, but is fatally shot by a soldier in a military helicopter. Eleven uses her powers to destroy the helicopter just as Mike’s group arrives; as Brenner dies, Eleven expresses sadness, but does not forgive his actions. Dr. Owens is left under Sullivan’s custody. In Kamchatka, Hopper, Joyce, Murray, Yuri and Antonov escape the prison; on their way out, they discover a room with cryogenic tanks containing frozen Demodogs, and a heated cell that holds a fragment of the Mind Flayer. Several guards, including Ivan, are killed by the adult Demogorgon.
59 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS The Hawkins group enact their plan: Max, Lucas, and Erica go to the Creel House, while Steve, Nancy, and Robin go to its Upside Down counterpart to attack Vecna. Dustin and Eddie distract the bats, with Eddie sacrificing himself in the process. Eleven’s group create a makeshift sensory deprivation tank at a local Surfer Boy Pizza restaurant, allowing Eleven to use psychic projection and defend Max’s mind from Vecna, inspired by the times when she went into Terry and Billy’s minds. Max begins hallucinating in the Creel attic, but evades Vecna by slipping into a memory. Vecna and Eleven both enter the memory, with Vecna ultimately overpowering Eleven; he pulls the psychic avatars of the girls into the Mind Lair, restraining them with vines. He reveals to Eleven that he created the Mind Flayer, and has controlled the Upside Down ever since. Mike professes his love to Eleven, giving her the strength to break Vecna’s control over Max, but after interference from Jason, Max dies from her injuries. Hopper, Joyce, and Murray reenter the prison, where the Mind Flayer’s particles - accidentally freed from its cell by richocheting bullets - has entered the frozen Demodogs, reanimating them. Murray burns and kills the Demodogs with Yuri’s flamethrower, weakening Vecna through the hive mind; moments later, Hopper beheads the adult Demogorgon with a sword. In the Upside Down version of the Creel attic, Steve, Robin, and Nancy attack Vecna’s true form, setting him ablaze; Vecna is severely injured, but flees the Creel House before the group can finish killing him. Eleven uses her powers to revive Max, but the latter’s brief death allows Vecna’s gates to open and tear through Hawkins, which results in Ja-
60 IN THE MOOD FOR STRANGER THINGS Jason’s death. Two days later, the town is recovering from an “earthquake.” Everyone unites, while Max remains comatose. Will senses that Vecna is still alive; soon after, dark plumes rise from the four gates, a supernatural storm begins to rage in the skies, and the Upside Down’s spores fall across Hawkins.
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