With Stranger Things Season 5 approaching as the series finale, now’s the perfect time to revisit where it all began. The first season premiered on Netflix in July 2016, instantly becoming a cultural phenomenon that blended 1980s nostalgia with supernatural horror and heartfelt friendships. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in November 1983, Season 1 introduced us to the Upside Down, a mysterious girl with telekinetic powers, and a monster that would change everything. Here’s your complete episode-by-episode refresher on the eight chapters that started it all.
Episode 1: The Vanishing of Will Byers
Everything begins on November 6, 1983, when a scientist at Hawkins National Laboratory is attacked by an unseen creature. That same night, 12-year-old Will Byers vanishes while cycling home from a Dungeons & Dragons session with his friends Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair.
The following morning, Will’s mother Joyce Byers reports his disappearance to Police Chief Jim Hopper, who begins a search. At the lab, Dr. Martin Brenner investigates organic substance oozing from the basement, claiming “the girl” cannot have gone far. Meanwhile, a terrified young girl with a shaved head and hospital gown wanders into Benny’s diner. Benny discovers a tattoo reading “011” on her arm and learns her name is Eleven. When Benny calls social services, Brenner’s agents kill him, but Eleven escapes using telekinetic powers.
Joyce experiences something inexplicable—her phone short circuits after receiving a mysterious call she believes is from Will. While searching the woods for their friend, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas stumble upon Eleven, setting everything in motion.
Episode 2: The Weirdo on Maple Street
Mike hides Eleven in his basement, where the boys learn she possesses extraordinary abilities. She can move objects with her mind and demonstrates knowledge of Will’s location, pointing to a photo of him and saying “hiding.” The boys begin to trust her, especially when she helps Mike evade school bullies by using her powers to slam a metal door shut.
Joyce becomes convinced that Will is communicating with her through electrical currents. The lights in her house flicker erratically, and she receives another mysterious phone call where she hears breathing on the other end. Everyone thinks grief is driving her to madness, but Joyce knows her son is trying to reach her.
Nancy Wheeler, Mike’s older sister, attends a party at Steve Harrington’s house with her best friend Barb Holland. While Nancy goes inside with Steve, Barb waits alone by the pool. Something watches her from the woods—the same creature that took Will. When Barb cuts her hand on a beer can, drops of blood fall into the pool. The creature emerges and drags Barb into the Upside Down, though no one witnesses her disappearance.
Hopper’s investigation uncovers troubling inconsistencies. The state police took over the case suspiciously fast, and the lab seems connected to Will’s disappearance.
Episode 3: Holly, Jolly
Joyce’s conviction leads to one of the season’s most iconic moments: she covers her living room wall with Christmas lights and paints an alphabet beneath them, creating a communication system. When she asks if Will is alive, the lights spell “YES.” Will later warns her through the lights that something is “here,” and a creature with an elongated head and no face bursts through her wall, forcing Joyce to flee.
Mike, Dustin, and Lucas bring Eleven to school, where she uses her powers to help them again—this time flipping a bully’s van through the air when they’re cornered. But Lucas grows suspicious of Eleven, questioning whether they can trust her and accusing her of knowing more about Will’s disappearance than she’s revealing.
Hopper discovers Will’s “body” in the local quarry. Joyce refuses to believe her son is dead and demands to see the body, but Hopper insists it’s Will. Nancy searches for Barb, who never returned home from the party, and grows increasingly worried about her missing friend.
Will’s apparent death devastates the community. A funeral is planned, and Joyce retreats further into what others perceive as denial. But Hopper’s instincts tell him something isn’t right about how conveniently the case has been wrapped up.
Episode 4: The Body
Hopper’s suspicions drive him to break into the morgue and cut open Will’s “body.” His instincts prove correct—it’s a fake corpse stuffed with cotton, designed to end the search. The lab has been covering up what really happened, and Will is still out there somewhere.
Joyce and Hopper theorize that Will is trapped in another dimension. Using their Dungeons & Dragons knowledge, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas propose the same theory. Eleven confirms their hypothesis by demonstrating with Mike’s D&D board that Will exists in a dark mirror version of Hawkins—a place the boys dub “the Upside Down.”
Nancy and Jonathan Byers, Will’s older brother, team up to search for the creature. Examining Jonathan’s photographs from Steve’s party, they spot something monstrous lurking in the background. They realize the creature is hunting in Hawkins, and it took both Will and Barb.
Joyce successfully makes audio contact with Will through her wall. She can hear him, and he can hear her. Will tells her he’s in their house but in a cold, dark version of it. Joyce promises she’s coming to get him, cementing her determination to bring her son home no matter what it takes.
Lucas, frustrated with Eleven’s secrecy, breaks away from the group and climbs a water tower to search for the gate to the Upside Down. He spots suspicious activity at Hawkins Lab just as agents begin tracking the boys through Eleven’s connection to them.
Episode 5: The Flea and the Acrobat
The boys ask their science teacher Mr. Clarke about traveling to other dimensions. He explains the theoretical concept using a flea and acrobat analogy—you need massive amounts of energy to create a door between dimensions. This confirms their suspicion that Hawkins Lab opened a gate to the Upside Down.
Lucas warns the others that agents are coming, creating a rift in the group. He believes Eleven is dangerous and can’t be trusted. Mike defends Eleven, leading to a fight that splits the boys apart. Eleven, overwhelmed by the conflict she’s caused, runs away.
Hopper breaks into Hawkins Lab and discovers the truth: a massive gate to the Upside Down exists in the basement, exactly where Eleven accidentally opened it during her sensory deprivation experiments. Before he can escape, lab agents knock him unconscious. When he wakes up in his home, he finds surveillance equipment planted throughout, confirming the lab is watching his every move.
Nancy and Jonathan set a trap for the creature using themselves as bait. Nancy enters the woods alone while Jonathan waits with supplies. The creature attacks Nancy, dragging her through a portal into the Upside Down. There, she discovers Barb’s corpse and realizes her friend is dead. Nancy barely escapes back through the portal, traumatized but alive.
Joyce builds a sensory deprivation tank in her living room using a kiddie pool and salt, attempting to strengthen her connection with Will. Through this enhanced communication, she and Will make plans for his rescue.
Episode 6: The Monster
The group’s dynamics shift as Steve discovers Nancy has been spending time with Jonathan. Feeling betrayed, Steve lashes out, leading to confrontations that expose the teenagers’ insecurities and fears. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Nancy’s shared trauma hunting the creature brings them closer together.
Eleven finds companionship with Mike’s older sister’s friend, but the brief respite doesn’t last. Agents surround the house, forcing Eleven to use her powers to defend herself. She kills two agents and flips a van, showcasing the full extent of her abilities when protecting people she cares about.
Hopper and Joyce make a deal with the lab—in exchange for information about accessing the Upside Down, they’ll keep quiet about the experiments. Brenner agrees, though his intentions remain suspect. He’s less interested in rescuing Will than in recapturing Eleven and continuing his research.
The boys reconcile after realizing they need each other to save Will and stop the creature. Lucas apologizes to Eleven, and the group reunites with a common purpose. Eleven reveals more about her past through fragmented memories—the experiments Brenner conducted, the sensory deprivation tank, and the moment she accidentally opened the gate by making psychic contact with the creature.
Jonathan and Nancy arm themselves with weapons, preparing for a final confrontation with the monster. They create a plan to lure it to the Byers house and kill it using gasoline, bear traps, and Jonathan’s bat embedded with nails.
Episode 7: The Bathtub
The group needs to amplify Eleven’s powers to locate Will and Barb in the Upside Down. Mr. Clarke unknowingly helps them build a makeshift sensory deprivation tank using a kiddie pool, salt, and a pair of goggles with duct tape. They set up in the middle school gym, with Eleven entering the tank while the boys and Nancy stand guard.
Eleven’s psychic journey into the Upside Down provides heartbreaking revelations. She finds Barb’s corpse in the dark dimension, confirming Nancy’s worst fears—her friend is dead. But Eleven also locates Will, barely alive, hiding in a makeshift fort in the Upside Down version of his home. He’s weak, a tendril down his throat, but he’s fighting to survive. Eleven tells the others that Will is alive but running out of time.
Hopper and Joyce prepare to enter the Upside Down through the gate at Hawkins Lab. Brenner provides hazmat suits and escorts them to the basement rift, though his agents remain suspicious of their motives. The two adults venture into the toxic, nightmarish dimension, searching desperately for Will.
At the Byers house, Jonathan and Nancy arm themselves and wait for the creature. Steve arrives to apologize to Nancy, inadvertently walking into their trap just as the creature attacks. The monster breaks through from the Upside Down, and the three teenagers fight it together using gasoline, fire, and makeshift weapons. They wound it, forcing the creature to retreat, but it’s not dead.
Agents corner the boys and Eleven at the school, with Brenner himself arriving to reclaim his escaped experiment. He approaches Eleven gently, calling himself “Papa” and insisting she come home. The boys refuse to let him take her, and Mike especially stands firm, holding Eleven’s hand and promising she’s part of their group now.
Episode 8: The Upside Down
The season finale delivers on all its building tension. Brenner’s agents surround the boys and Eleven at the middle school, weapons drawn, demanding Eleven surrender. When agents threaten to shoot Mike, Eleven unleashes her full power. She breaks necks with her mind, crushes bones, and causes devastating destruction throughout the hallway. The agents fall one by one, and Eleven’s nosebleed intensifies with each use of her abilities. But before she can catch her breath, the creature—the Demogorgon—breaks through the school wall.
In the Upside Down, Hopper and Joyce navigate the toxic dimension’s nightmarish landscape. They find Will unconscious in his fort, a tendril from the Upside Down lodged down his throat. Joyce frantically performs CPR while Hopper removes the tendril, and after agonizing moments, Will gasps back to life. They carry him back through the gate to safety.
At the school, the Demogorgon advances on the boys. Lucas uses his wrist rocket to shoot at it while Dustin and Mike try to find an escape. But there’s nowhere to run. Eleven, despite her exhaustion and bleeding nose, stands between her friends and the monster. She faces the Demogorgon one final time, using every ounce of her remaining strength to protect the people she’s grown to love.
In a blinding display of power, Eleven disintegrates the Demogorgon—but the effort causes both the monster and Eleven to dissolve into particles and vanish. Mike screams for her, reaching out as the girl who became his best friend and first love disappears before his eyes. The boys are left standing in the ruined hallway, safe but devastated by the loss.
One month later, Christmas arrives in Hawkins. Will recovers at home, surrounded by family and friends. Joyce, Jonathan, Hopper, and the boys celebrate together, grateful for Will’s return. But the final moments reveal troubling signs that Will’s ordeal isn’t truly over. In the bathroom, away from the celebration, Will coughs up a slug-like creature into the sink. For a brief moment, his vision flickers, and he sees himself back in the Upside Down. The dark dimension hasn’t released its hold on him.
The camera cuts to Chief Hopper in the woods, leaving a box of Eggo waffles in a hidden container—Eleven’s favorite food. The gesture suggests Hopper knows or hopes she survived her sacrifice. As he walks away, the camera slowly pulls back, revealing we’re viewing the scene from the perspective of the Upside Down itself. The gate may be closed, but the threat remains, lurking just beneath the surface of Hawkins.
Final Take
Nearly a decade after its release, Stranger Things Season 1 remains essential viewing because it established the emotional foundation for everything that followed. The friendships between Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will form the series’ heart. Eleven’s sacrifice demonstrated that love and connection could overcome even the darkest supernatural forces. Joyce’s unwavering belief in her son set the standard for parental determination that runs throughout the show.
As we prepare for the final season, remembering where these characters began—before the Mind Flayer, before Vecna, before everything became apocalyptic—reminds us what’s always been at stake: protecting the people we love, no matter what monsters emerge from the darkness.
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