Stranger Things season four spoilers follow.
A lot, and we mean a lot, went down in Stranger Things season four, so we’re here to break it all down for you.
Stranger Things season 4 recap
In a flashback that takes place before the events of season one, season four kicks off with Dr Martin Brenner discovering a bloodied, young (thanks CGI) Eleven standing in the midst of a horrifying massacre that’s just happened in Hawkins lab. Shocked by the bloodbath, Brenner asks a guilty looking El: "What have you done?"
Fast forward to 1986 and the Byers family and El are living in sunny California, where they relocated at the conclusion of season three following the epic battle of Starcourt Mall, Hopper's (supposed) demise and El losing her powers.
El is grieving for Hopper and dealing with high-school bullies, Will is painting a lot, Jonathan is getting stoned with his new friend Argyle and Joyce is working from home as a telemarketer.
Back in Hawkins, Lucas is hanging out with the cool kids, Nancy is the editor of the school newspaper, and Dustin and Mike have joined the school's D&D society, The Hellfire Club, which is led by genial metalhead Eddie 'The Freak' Munson. Meanwhile, Max is having a hard time coping with Billy’s death.
The premiere episode concludes as it starts: with someone getting brutally slaughtered, of course. This time around there’s a new Upside Down entity to torment Hawkins and cheerleader Chrissy is his first victim. After her gruesome (and frankly nightmarish) death – while she's trying to buy drugs from Eddie – a terrified Eddie flees his trailer.
With Eddie now prime suspect in the murder, Dustin and Max grow suspicious and enlist Steve and Robin (who are now working in the local video store) to help look for him and find out what really went down.
They eventually track him down in an old boathouse and determine Chrissy's death is indeed connected to the Upside Down. These kids just can’t seem to catch a break, can they?
Meanwhile, Nancy and her deputy editor, Fred, visit Eddie's uncle to question him about the murder and he informs them Chrissy's missing eyes are a remnant of crimes perpetrated decades ago by a man called Victor Creel.
Alas, Fred wanders off, plagued by the same sinister visions Chrissy had prior to her death and he becomes the next victim of Vecna (a new D&D the name the kids have assigned to season four’s big bad).
Back in California, Joyce gets her detective hat back on when she receives a creepy Russian doll (with nipples) in the mail containing a cryptic message from someone named Enzo. Convinced Hopper is still alive (by this point we’ve seen him imprisoned in Russia) she convinces Murray to go with her to Alaska to meet a man named Yuri.
In the meantime, El has hit the school bully in the face with a roller skate (deserved) and is en route to a juvenile detention facility. Dr Sam Owens, however, stops the transportation van and tells her what's been going on back in Hawkins. He believes El is the key to stopping Vecna and informs her there's a way to help get her powers back.
In Hawkins (there’s a lot of back and forth), the kids break into the counsellor's office and discover that both Vecna’s victims had been experiencing the same symptoms before their deaths – and it appears that poor Max is to be number three on the chopping block.
In a race against time, Nancy and Robin pose as psychology students and pay a visit to Creel in the asylum he’s being detained in, where he tells them a demon had haunted his home and killed his family.
Fortunately, Creel mentioned that his favourite song was playing on the radio when the attack took place, so the girls tell the boys to play Max's favourite song when she enters a trance and prepares to become Vecna's next victim. Cue Kate Bush’s 'Running Up That Hill'.
After briefly floating in the air and coming face-to-face with Vecna, Kate Bush prevails and Max survives. For now. Cue Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ indefinitely.
*SPOTIFY EXPLODES WORLDWIDE*
Meanwhile, Owens takes El to an underground government bunker where she quickly discovers he’s tricked her into teaming up with her earliest enemy, Dr Martin Brenner, aka Papa. Now El must face her traumatic past as a way to regain her powers.
Her memories transport her back to her time as a test subject in the lab where she meets a kind orderly and experiences flashbacks of the massacre. Her powers are (partially) restored (yay).
On the other side of the world, Yuri double-crosses Enzo and is on his way to turn "the Americans" over to the Russians for money. Thankfully, Murray ‘The Bald Eagle’ Bauman uses his karate expertise and together with Joyce, is able to take control of the plane and land (or rather crash) it in Russia.
Following a compass to Lovers Lake, the Hawkins gang find another gate to the Upside Down lurking beneath the water. A tentacle snatches Steve and drags him through the portal, where he’s besieged by a swarm of demobats. It's not long before Nancy, Robin and a reluctant Eddie follow to help fight them off, though.
In Russia, Joyce and Murray save Hopper from becoming demogorgon dinner. In Hawkins, Dustin, Lucas, Max and Erica (her absence this season is a crime) head to the gate at Eddie’s trailer to help the older Hawkins kids pass through from the Upside Down – but Nancy becomes trapped in Vecna’s trance.
Back in the foreboding 'rainbow room', El's gruelling rediscovery leads to her learn that she was once tricked into attempting to escape by the orderly from Brenner's lab.
After she helps remove the chip that weakens and tracks him, we also discover that the orderly is, or was, subject 001, Creel’s son, the original patient who Brenner used to give the other children their supernatural abilities.
He then goes on a murderous rampage, massacring all the children in the rainbow room, and El uses her trauma to gather all her power and banish 001 to the Upside Down. In doing so, he is transformed into the series' most nightmare-fuelled villain yet, Vecna.
The scene is set for the final confrontation with Vecna in part 2.
Colonel Jack Sullivan enters the bunker to kill El since he thinks she is responsible for the Hawkins killings, but El escapes thanks to her recently recovered abilities. Oh, and Brenner dies in the confrontation before taking his shot at redemption. He will not be missed.
Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle show up at the bunker in a Surfer Boy Pizza van thanks to some coordinates provided by Dusty-bun’s girlfriend Suzie-poo.
In her trance-like state, Vecna tells Nancy his big plans: he needs one more kill to unleash complete chaos on Hawkins. With that, the kids come up with an elaborate plan to take him down once and for all.
Using Max as bait in the Creel house, Steve, Nancy and Robin head back to the Upside Down version to flambé Vecna. Meanwhile, Eddie and Dustin divert attention away from the demobats with Eddie’s epic guitar solo from Metallica's ‘Master of Puppets’.
Unfortunately, Jason (who thinks Hellfire is a satanic cult) shows up at the Creel house while Max is in a trance. He fights Lucas and breaks Max’s walkman in the process, meaning there’s no more Kate Bush to take her out of it.
The demobats are summoned by Eddie's solo, but just as Dustin returns to their own dimension, the Hellfire metalhead stays behind to fight them off. Eddie dies a hero, and with that, fans all over the world had their hearts torn out *sobs*.
Meanwhile, El piggybacks onto Max’s mind in the void. Vecna is ultimately defeated by El (and his physical body flambéed), but not before he can kill Max and a huge portal tears through Hawkins.
Two days later, it’s revealed Max is hospitalised and in a coma (so not actually dead, thanks to El). The whole gang are reunited, but when Will says he can still feel Vecna’s presence, it's clear the battle isn't quite over yet.
We're just gonna have to wait until season five comes around to see what happens in the series' final showdown.
Stranger Things seasons 1-4 volume one are now streaming on Netflix.
BB Designs Stranger Things Demogorgon soft toy
Zavvi Gallery Stranger Things 'Friends Don't Lie' giclee print
Netflix Hawkins Middle School AV Club T-shirt
Sony/Legacy Recordings Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Original series, Season 3
Century Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town: The Second Official Novel
Content Production Intern, Digital Spy
After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022. In this role, Iona writes across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. During her time at Digital Spy, she has interviewed multiple Love Island stars, reported from the Black Adam red carpet and, most recently, interviewed the cast of Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid.
