Stranger Things Season 4 shattered every expectation. Released in two volumes in summer 2022, it introduced the show’s most terrifying villain yet—Vecna—while splitting the group across three continents and diving deep into Eleven’s traumatic origin story. Set in March 1986, eight months after the Battle of Starcourt, this nine-episode season transformed from teen horror into epic supernatural warfare. With Season 5 approaching, here’s your complete episode-by-episode guide to the season that changed everything.
Episode 1: The Hellfire Club
Season 4 opens with a massacre. In September 1979, we witness a bloodbath at Hawkins National Laboratory as an unseen force brutally kills everyone inside. Young Eleven, bloodied and terrified, stumbles through hallways filled with corpses while Dr. Brenner desperately searches for her.
Flash forward to March 1986. The Byers family—Joyce, Will, Jonathan, and Eleven—now lives in Lenora Hills, California. Eleven struggles at school without her powers, bullied relentlessly by classmates. She lies to Mike in letters, pretending everything is perfect. Will, increasingly aware of his sexuality and his lingering feelings for Mike, creates a painting he keeps hidden.
In Hawkins, the remaining kids have found new rhythms. Dustin and Mike join the Hellfire Club, a D&D group led by eccentric metalhead Eddie Munson. Max isolates herself, grieving Billy’s death and avoiding Lucas, who’s joined the basketball team to fit in. Nancy and Robin investigate for the school newspaper while Steve works at Family Video, pining for Nancy.
The episode’s horror kicks in when cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham, plagued by visions of her abusive mother and a ticking grandfather clock, seeks drugs from Eddie to numb the pain. At Eddie’s trailer, something far worse happens: Chrissy levitates, her bones snap grotesquely, her eyes cave in, and she dies horrifically while Eddie watches, helpless and terrified. He flees, becoming Hawkins’ prime murder suspect.
Meanwhile, in Kamchatka, Russia, Hopper survives as a prisoner in a brutal gulag, forced to work on railroad construction in freezing conditions. Joyce receives a mysterious package containing a Russian doll and a cryptic message: Hopper is alive.
Episode 2: Vecna’s Curse
Panic spreads through Hawkins as news of Chrissy’s death dominates. Eddie hides at Reefer Rick’s lakeside house while Dustin, Max, Steve, and Robin search for him, believing he’s innocent.
Max becomes the season’s emotional anchor. Since Billy’s death, she’s withdrawn from everyone, listening to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on repeat, visiting Billy’s grave, and writing letters she’ll never send. When she reads a letter at the cemetery, she experiences the same symptoms Chrissy had: hallucinations, nosebleads, and visions of a grandfather clock.
Nancy and Robin investigate Chrissy’s death at the library, discovering a disturbing pattern: every victim experienced headaches, nosebleeds, nightmares, and visions before dying. They’re symptoms of a supernatural curse.
The group finds Eddie and learns what he witnessed. Dustin theorizes they’re dealing with something from the Upside Down, despite the gate being closed for eight months. They name the creature “Vecna” after a D&D lich known for cursing his victims.
In California, Eleven’s fabricated perfect life crumbles. During a school project presentation, her bully Angela publicly humiliates her. Later, at a skating rink, Angela escalates the torment. When Mike tries defending Eleven, Angela mocks him too. Eleven, overwhelmed and powerless, smashes a roller skate into Angela’s face, bloodying her nose. Police take Eleven away as Mike and Will watch helplessly.
In Russia, Hopper survives gladiatorial combat against a Demogorgon, revealing the Soviets have somehow kept creatures from the Upside Down alive. Joyce and Murray plan a rescue mission after decoding the mysterious message.
Episode 3: The Monster and the Superhero
Eleven faces consequences for attacking Angela while Dr. Sam Owens, the sympathetic scientist from Season 2, arrives with an offer: come with him to a secret facility where she might regain her powers. The government needs her because something is killing people in Hawkins. Eleven, desperate to protect her friends and feeling powerless, agrees.
In Hawkins, another victim falls to Vecna—basketball player Patrick is cursed and dies grotesquely while teammates, including Jason Carver (Chrissy’s boyfriend), witness Eddie fleeing the scene. Jason, grief-stricken and vengeful, rallies the basketball team into a vigilante mob hunting Eddie, convinced he’s a satanic cult leader.
Nancy, Steve, Robin, Dustin, Lucas, and Max piece together Vecna’s pattern: he targets people suffering from trauma and guilt, feeding on their darkest emotions. Max realizes with dawning horror that she fits the profile perfectly. She’s been experiencing headaches, nosebleeds, nightmares about Billy’s death, and overwhelming guilt for wishing he would die before the Mind Flayer killed him.
The investigation leads them to Victor Creel, a man institutionalized in 1959 for allegedly murdering his family in a gruesome massacre. Creel insists a demon killed his wife and daughter while he and his son survived. Nancy and Robin visit him at Pennhurst Mental Hospital, learning about the Creel family’s curse and the creepy old Creel House on Morehead Street—a house that’s been abandoned and feared ever since.
In Russia, Hopper befriends fellow prisoner Dmitri (the guard who sent Joyce the message) and begins planning an escape. Joyce and Murray arrive in Russia, meeting smuggler Yuri, who promises to help—before betraying them and delivering them to the prison.
Episode 4: Dear Billy
This episode belongs entirely to Max Mayfield and delivers one of the series’ most emotionally devastating and triumphant sequences.
Max realizes she has less than 24 hours before Vecna claims her. She writes goodbye letters to everyone she loves—Lucas, Dustin, Steve, even her mother—and asks Lucas to give them to everyone after she’s gone. She’s accepted her fate, carrying too much guilt and trauma to fight.
The group races to find answers. Nancy and Robin discover the Creel House connection while Dustin and Steve theorize that music might protect Max since Vecna attacks through memories and music is deeply tied to emotion and memory.
At the Creel House ruins, Max experiences Vecna’s full assault. She’s pulled into his mindscape—a dark, twisted version of the house filled with vines, floating bodies, and staircases leading nowhere. Vecna appears: a horrifying humanoid creature with exposed flesh, vines growing from his body, and a voice that echoes with ancient malice. He shows Max visions of Billy’s death, her mother’s addiction, and her own guilt, trying to break her completely.
In the real world, Lucas, Dustin, and Steve realize Max is trapped in a trance. Lucas screams her name, shakes her, but she’s unreachable. Dustin remembers: music. He frantically searches Max’s Walkman, finds Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” and jams the headphones on her ears.
In the mindscape, Max hears the song. It cuts through Vecna’s assault, creating a glowing portal back to reality. She runs desperately through nightmare hallways while Vecna chases her, his voice promising she can’t escape. The song grows louder. She sees her friends in the real world, standing in a cemetery, calling her name. With one final burst of determination, Max leaps through the portal, gasping back to consciousness in Lucas’s arms as her friends cry with relief.
Max is safe—for now. But Vecna’s curse isn’t broken; it’s only paused. She’s living on borrowed time.
Episode 5: The Nina Project
Eleven arrives at a top-secret facility in the Nevada desert where Dr. Brenner—alive, scarred from the Season 1 Demogorgon attack—waits for her. Eleven recoils in horror, but Owens insists Brenner is necessary for the “Nina Project,” an experimental program designed to help Eleven access repressed memories and restore her powers.
Eleven enters a sensory deprivation tank similar to those from her childhood. Instead of projecting outward, Nina forces her inward, reliving her time at Hawkins Lab as a child. She witnesses her training sessions, her friendship with other numbered children, and the arrival of a friendly orderly who shows her kindness and encourages her to escape.
These flashbacks reveal critical context: Eleven wasn’t alone at the lab. There were other children with abilities, all controlled by Brenner. The orderly becomes her confidant, teaching her how to use her anger to fuel her powers and planning their escape together.
In Hawkins, the group investigates the Creel House in both the real world and attempts to understand Vecna’s connection to it. They discover the house shows signs of Upside Down activity even though the gate is supposedly closed. This means Vecna is creating gates from within the Upside Down, tearing through at murder sites.
In Russia, Joyce, Murray, and Hopper finally reunite after Joyce and Murray are captured. Together with Dmitri and a reluctant Yuri, they plot their escape while Soviet guards prepare to feed more prisoners to the Demogorgon.
Episode 6: The Dive
The Hawkins group makes a breakthrough: Vecna is using the Creel House in the Upside Down as his lair. If they can find a gate into the Upside Down, they can reach him there and kill him before he claims Max.
Their opportunity comes when another student, Patrick, dies at Lover’s Lake. The group investigates and discovers a glowing gate at the bottom of the lake—exactly where Patrick died, confirming Vecna creates gates at each murder site. Steve dives down to investigate, swimming through the underwater portal. Nancy, Robin, and Eddie follow, leaving Dustin, Lucas, and Max on the surface to guard against Jason’s increasingly violent mob.
In the Upside Down, the group faces immediate danger: demo-bats attack Steve, wrapping around his throat and biting into his sides. Nancy, Robin, and Eddie fight them off, but they’re stranded in the toxic dimension without weapons or a clear path back. They trek toward the Upside Down version of Nancy’s house, hoping to find guns and supplies.
Eleven’s Nina sessions continue, revealing more of her past. The orderly helps her remove the device that suppresses her powers, and together they plan to escape Hawkins Lab. But something feels wrong about the orderly’s intentions—his encouragement of her rage seems less like freedom and more like manipulation.
In Russia, Hopper’s escape plan goes into motion. Using smuggled alcohol and improvised weapons, the group fights their way through guards, knowing their window to escape is closing.
Episode 7: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab
This episode delivers the season’s most shocking reveal, recontextualizing everything we thought we knew about Eleven and the Upside Down.
In the Upside Down, Nancy is captured by Vecna’s vines while searching for weapons. She’s pulled into a trance, experiencing Vecna’s memories. She sees his true identity: Henry Creel, Victor’s son, who possessed telekinetic abilities from childhood. Henry killed his own mother and sister in 1959, framing his father and enjoying the power he felt. Dr. Brenner discovered Henry, brought him to Hawkins Lab, and made him “Number One”—the first test subject, the template for all the other children including Eleven.
Vecna reveals his philosophy to Nancy: humanity is a plague, and he intends to reshape the world by merging the Upside Down with reality, creating a realm where he rules as a god.
In Eleven’s Nina flashbacks, the horrifying truth emerges. The kind orderly is Henry Creel—Number One. After Eleven removed the chip suppressing his powers, Henry didn’t escape with her. Instead, he slaughtered every child and staff member in the lab in a brutal massacre, the same massacre we saw in Episode 1. Eleven, traumatized and confused, witnessed the carnage.
Henry tried to convince Eleven to join him, to embrace her power and reject Brenner’s control. But Eleven, horrified by the deaths of her friends, refused. In a climactic battle, Eleven used every ounce of her power against Henry, not to kill him but to banish him. She opened a rift in reality—the very first gate to the Upside Down—and blasted Henry through it.
Henry fell through dimensions, his body twisted and corrupted by the Upside Down’s toxic atmosphere, transforming him into the creature we now know as Vecna. Eleven didn’t just close the gate in Season 1; she created the Upside Down’s connection to Hawkins in the first place. The guilt of that realization devastates her.
The trauma of fighting Henry wiped Eleven’s memories and drained her powers. Brenner found her in the lab’s ruins, the sole survivor, with no memory of what she’d done.
Back in the present, Eleven’s powers return in a surge of rage and anguish. She remembers everything.
Episode 8: Papa
Eleven, now aware of the full truth, demands to leave the facility and help her friends in Hawkins. Brenner refuses, insisting she’s not ready and that she belongs at the lab with him. When Eleven tries to leave, Brenner sedates her, revealing he’s more captor than protector.
Dr. Owens, torn between loyalty to the government and genuine care for Eleven, helps her escape. Military forces arrive to shut down the Nina Project, leading to a chaotic shootout. Brenner is mortally wounded protecting Eleven from soldiers. As he dies, he begs Eleven to tell him she understands he loved her. She refuses, denying him the absolution he seeks. He was never “Papa”—he was her abuser.
Eleven escapes with Owens’ help, reuniting with Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle (Jonathan’s stoner friend who’s been comic relief throughout the California storyline). Will gives Eleven a heartfelt speech about how she’s a superhero, how she’s always fought for those she loves, and how she’ll always inspire others. The speech is emotional for Mike, who doesn’t realize Will is expressing his own feelings through Eleven’s story.
In Hawkins, the group prepares for a final assault on Vecna. They have a two-part plan: Max will act as bait, allowing Vecna to begin cursing her while the others attack him in the Upside Down. If they can kill Vecna’s physical body while he’s distracted, they can break his hold on Max and close the gates.
In Russia, Hopper, Joyce, Murray, Dmitri, and Yuri finally escape the prison and steal a helicopter, barely making it out alive. They head toward the United States, determined to return to Hawkins.
Episode 9: The Piggyback
The feature-length finale runs nearly two and a half hours, delivering an epic, devastating conclusion.
The plan begins: Max writes a fourth letter—to Vecna himself—taunting him and offering herself as bait. Lucas stays with her at the Creel House while Erica serves as lookout. Dustin and Eddie remain in the Upside Down to distract the demo-bats using Eddie’s guitar and amplifiers. Steve, Nancy, and Robin venture into Vecna’s lair to kill him with Molotov cocktails and sawed-off shotguns.
Eleven, with the help of a pizza dough freezer and enough salt to fill a kiddie pool, creates a makeshift sensory deprivation chamber. From California, she projects her consciousness to Hawkins, “piggybacking” into Max’s mind to help protect her.
In the Creel House attic, Max baits Vecna, allowing him to pull her into his mindscape. The moment he does, Steve, Nancy, and Robin attack his physical body with fire and bullets. Vecna writhes in agony, his connection to Max weakening.
But Vecna is stronger than they anticipated. He throws off the attack and begins killing Max in earnest, breaking her arms and legs, crushing her bones one by one. Lucas watches in horror as Max levitates, screaming in agony. Jason arrives, attacking Lucas and destroying Max’s Walkman so she can’t use music to escape.
In the Upside Down, Eddie sacrifices himself to buy Dustin time. He plays a shredding guitar solo of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” drawing the demo-bats away from Steve’s group. When the bats turn back, Eddie stands his ground instead of fleeing. “I’m tired of running,” he tells Dustin. The bats overwhelm him, and Eddie dies in Dustin’s arms, finally becoming the hero he never believed he could be.
Eleven fights Vecna in Max’s mindscape, battling him psychically while Nancy, Steve, and Robin continue their physical assault. Eleven screams, “You can’t have her!” and blasts Vecna through a window. His body falls from the Creel House, burning.
But it’s too late. Max dies in Lucas’s arms, her heart stopping as she whispers, “I’m not ready to die.” Eleven, hearing Lucas’s desperate screams, uses her powers to restart Max’s heart. Max gasps back to life—but her mind is gone. She’s alive, but in a coma, her consciousness taken by Vecna.
The victory is hollow. Four gates open in Hawkins—spreading from the four murder sites—and merge into a massive rift that tears through the town. The Upside Down begins bleeding into Hawkins, spreading ash and decay.
Two days later, Hawkins is a disaster zone. The town believes an earthquake caused the destruction. Max lies comatose in the hospital. Eddie is dead, blamed as a serial killer. Jason died when the gate opened beneath him.
Hopper and Joyce return to Hawkins, reuniting with the kids in an emotional embrace. The group gathers at the remains of the Creel House, watching as the Upside Down spreads. Will touches his neck, feeling the familiar chill—the Mind Flayer is active again.
In the final shot, the camera pulls back to reveal red lightning crackling over Hawkins. The gate is open. Vecna is alive. And the final battle is coming.
Final Take
Season 4 wasn’t just bigger—it was bolder. It revealed Eleven’s culpability in creating the Upside Down’s connection to Hawkins, adding moral complexity to her journey. Max’s trauma became the season’s emotional core, showing how grief and guilt make us vulnerable. Eddie’s sacrifice proved that heroism isn’t about being perfect; it’s about choosing to stand when everything tells you to run.
Most importantly, Season 4 set the stage for total war. Hawkins is compromised, Max is lost, and Vecna—the mastermind behind every horror since Season 1—is preparing his final assault. Season 5 will determine whether love and friendship can truly defeat a god.
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