Stranger Things (2016)

Season 1 (2016)

1 "Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers" The Duffer Brothers The Duffer Brothers July 15, 2016

On 6 November 1983, in a U.S. Department of Energy-backed Hawkins National Laboratory, a scientist is taken by an unseen force. While riding his bicycle home from a dungeons and dragons campaign, Will Byers, a 12-year-old boy, vanishes after encountering a strange creature. Meanwhile, a young girl appears at a restaurant wearing a hospital gown and shaved head. The restaurant owner calls the authorities and a woman arrives, a "social worker". She immediately shoots him, but the young girl is able to run away. Will's friends Lucas, Mike and Dustin find her in the rainy woods.

2 "Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street" The Duffer Brothers The Duffer Brothers July 15, 2016

Lucas, Mike and Dustin take the girl back to Mike's house. There, she reveals her name is 011 by showing Mike a tattoo on her arm. At Will's home, his mother Joyce claims she received a phone call from Will. Shortly afterwards her phone shorted out. Scientists from the Laboratory eavesdrop on a phone call between Joyce and Florence, police dispatcher. Afterwards, they go to Joyce's home in Hazmat suits and radiation detectors and see a substance oozing from the walls. Back at Mike's home, 011 - El for short - sees Will's picture and recognizes him. When Lucas and Dustin show up at Mike's house and threaten to tell Mike's parents she is there, El uses psychokinesis to lock the door and stop them from leaving.While searching for Will, Chief Hopper discovers El's hospital tag in the Laboratory's large drain pipe. Nancy, Mike's sister, goes to her boyfriend Steve's house for a small party. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Will's brother, takes pictures near where Will went missing. Hearing screaming, he runs and sees Steve, Nancy and friends hanging out near the pool. Shortly afterwards, Barbara, Nancy's friend, goes missing. Joyce receives another call from Will and starts hearing music coming from his room, witnessing something coming through her walls. After running out, she goes back in when she hears more music.

3 "Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly" Shawn Levy Jessica Mecklenburg July 15, 2016

Barbara wakes up at the bottom of the empty pool near a tall, gray creature. Climbing out, the world around her is completely different; dark, gray and the entirety covered in black roots. Nancy notices Barbara is missing. Chief Hopper goes to the Laboratory to speak to someone but the guard tells him to speak to Rick Schaffer. After some insistence, the guard lets him through. After he leaves, it is revealed that the black root-like substance is growing inside the lab.

At Mike's home alone, El remembers being in the Lab, hooked up to an EEG machine crushing a Coca-Cola can with telekinesis. Shortly afterwards, she gets anosebleed and a group of men smile.

Joyce stocks up on Christmas lights and sets them up around her home, establishing communication with Will. At the library, Hopper and deputies pull up information regarding Dr. Terry Brenner, the Laboratory, and another woman claiming her daughter went missing because the Scientists took her. El leaves Mike's house repeating the phrase, Three-One-Five - 3:15 - when she's supposed to meet the boys, when she has another flashback. Attached to the machine again, she is forced to inflict pain on a cat. Refusing, Dr. Brenner, referred to by her as "Papa", tries to lock her in a room alone. She kills two guards in the struggle; Brenner calls it "incredible."Joyce talks to Will with the lights; once for yes, twice for no. Will reveals he isn't safe, with Joyce attaching lights over letters for complex messages. Will tells Joyce to run as a creature begins to climb through her wall. Chief Hopper tries proving Dr. Brenner's responsibility for Will's disappearance when he receives a radio call. El leads the boys to Will's house, claiming that he's hiding there. Lucas, Dustin and Mike don't understand and accuse her of lying. Following the police, the boys arrive at the quarry and see Will's body being pulled from the water. Mike, upset with El, runs off.

4 "Chapter Four: The Body" Shawn Levy Justin Doble July 15, 2016

In Mike's basement, El proves that Will is still alive by making contact through Mike's comm radio. Mike hears him singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go", and after further discussion the boys think Will is stuck in the "Vale of Shadows", a "dark echo" dimension of death and decay.

Next morning, Mike calls Lucas and Dustin over and they decide to use their science teacher Mr. Clarke's Ham Shack radio to find Will. Arriving, the boys run into Mr. Clark, making a deal to attend an assembly commemorating Will's death in exchange for the radio. Overhearing bully Troy and his friend laughing, Mike confronts them and pushes Troy. Before Troy can attack, El stops and makes him urinate on himself.

Nancy has not heard from Barbara since the party and has become worried. After seeing Jonathan's photographs showing Barbara at the pool moments before she disappeared, she returns to Scott's house to search for her. Nancy finds Barbara's car and sees the creature in the woods. Nancy goes home, tearfully confessing to her mother that she lied about their whereabouts and is afraid for Barbara.

Back in Mr. Clark's room, the boys are able to make contact with Will. They overhear him talking to his mother saying he's afraid and the place he's in is dark and cold. Simultaneously, Joyce hears him through her living room wall and tears the wallpaper, revealing a flesh-like substance on the wall, with Will on the other side. Shortly after telling him to run, she grabs the axe to break through. After making a hole, it only reveals her front porch.Hopper, after confronting the State Trooper who found Will's body, goes to the morgue. Using a knife, he cuts open Will's body and discovers it's a fake. He then heads off to the Laboratory.

5 "Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat" The Duffer Brothers Alison Tatlock July 15, 2016

Will's father Lonnie comes to town and convinces Joyce that she has imagined everything since Will's disappearance, but later she discovers he is only interested in suing the company responsible for building the quarry, and she demands he leave. After Will's funeral, the boys ask Mr. Clark about dimensions: He says that inter-dimensional travel is impossible for humans due to energy beyond threshold, but a space-time tear could create a gate for passage. Returning to Mike's basement, Dustin reveals to Mike and Lucas that if the gate was created it would disrupt the electromagnetic field, throwing off compasses, and that by following their compasses they should be able to find the gate.

During the search, El remembers being weighed down in a sensory-deprivation tank to relay information from a Russian spy, but while under she comes across the creature. Scared of finding the gate, El directs the compasses away from the laboratory. When Lucas notices the distortion he confronts her, Mike defends her and they fight. Seeing this, El telekinetically knocks Lucas unconscious and runs away.After looking at Jonathan's photos, Nancy is convinced that the monster is responsible for Barbara's disappearance. Nancy and Jonathan decide to search for the creature on their own, using the Byers house, Steve's house and where they found Will's bike, to triangulate the creature's position. While searching, Nancy and Jonathan find a wounded deer and almost kill it, when the creature drags it away. Upon following the trail of blood, Nancy comes across the flesh-like substance from the portal in the base of a tree. She is able to crawl through to the other side and after entering, she sees the creature feasting upon the deer. She tries to flee but steps on a root, alerting the creature to her presence. The creature gives chase. Hearing her screams, Jonathan looks for her as the hole starts to close.

6 "Chapter Six: The Monster" The Duffer Brothers Jessie Nickson-Lopez July 15, 2016

Jonathan pulls Nancy through the portal in the tree, saving her from the creature. Jonathan returns Nancy safely to her room, but she is afraid to be alone and asks Jonathan to stay with her. Steve, dropping by for a visit, sees them together through her bedroom window. Jonathan joins Nancy in her bed, though nothing sexual takes place. The next day they resolve to hunt and kill the monster themselves, purchasing ammunition and bear traps from an army surplus store. Before they head out, Nancy sees a defaced sign referring to her as a slut. She hunts down and finds Steve and his friends, and as she confronts Steve, Jonathan comes to her aid. Jonathan and Steve get into an argument that escalates into a fistfight when Steve insults Jonathan's family. The cops arrest Jonathan after he inadvertently assaults an officer.

Joyce and Hopper decide to investigate together after Hopper discovers his home has been bugged. They track down the woman claiming that a covert facility stole her baby. She is revealed to be El's biological mother, who underwent MK Ultra training while pregnant. Jane, now 011, was confiscated by Dr. Brenner, with a fake story that Terry miscarried.

Mike, Lucas and Dustin are still unable to agree about searching for El. Lucas angrily parts ways with Dustin and Mike again after a failed reconciliation attempt, following the compass alone to the Laboratory while Mike and Dustin search for El in the woods. Alone in the woods, El misbehaves, stealing frozen waffles (her new favorite food) from a grocery store and shattering the door on an employee. Flashbacks reveal that while on her reconnaissance mission, El accidentally opened the gate between the normal world and the "Upside-Down", allowing the monster through.While searching for El, Mike and Dustin are ambushed by Troy, threatening Dustin with a knife. He demands that Mike jump off a cliff into the lake where Will's body was discovered, almost certainly fatal. Mike jumps, but is levitated to safety by el, who breaks Troy's arm. Mike and Dustin reconcile with El, and they head back to Mike's house. Lucas sees agents leaving Laboratory and realizes where they are going: Mike's house to take El.

7 "Chapter Seven: The Bathtub" The Duffer Brothers Justin Doble July 15, 2016

Lucas warns Mike on-radio that "the bad men are coming'. Mike, Dustin and El flee the house and narrowly escape with Lucas, with El flipping a van with her abilities to ensure they escape. Reaching their junkyard base, Lucas reconciles with Mike and El. Joyce and Hopper find Jonathan with Nancy at the station, revealing his knowledge about the creature to his mother. The group contacts Mike and his friends and they rendezvous with him at the junkyard, formulating a plan to make a sensory-deprivation tank to amplify El's powers so she can search for Will and Barbara. The united group breaks into the middle school, constructing a the tank in the gym. With Joyce's help, El successfully enters the Upside-Down to find Barbara and WIll. She finds Barbara dead, partially eaten, and Will alive, hiding in the Upside-Down version of "Castle Byers", his fort. Hopper and Joyce attempt to break into Hawkins Laboratory to save Will, but are apprehended by security guards. Nancy and Jonathan resolve to kill the monster, and steal their hunting gear back from the police station.In the Upside-Down, an incapacitated Will is shown singing in Castle Byers, as the monster breaks in.

8 "Chapter Eight: The Upside Down" The Duffer Brothers The Duffer Brothers July 15, 2016

Joyce and Hopper are detained in the Hawkins Laboratory and interrogated by Brenner. Hopper negotiates a deal: He will give up El's location, in exchange for neutrality and access to the gate. Brenner, assuming they won't survive, agrees. Joyce and Hopper enter in Hazmat suits, traveling extensively, and discover the creature's nest. They find Will there, unconscious with a slug-like creature feeding on him, and revive him.

Nancy and Jonathan turn the Byers home into a trap, then cut their hands to attract it. As they wait, Steve - having had a change of heart - unexpectedly arrives, intending to apologize to Jonathan about their fight. As the three argue, the monster attacks. A confused and disoriented Steve manages to trap it while Jonathan immolates it, injuring it, but it escapes back to the Upside-Down.

El and the boys hide out in the middle school. Mike asks El to a school dance, then kisses her. Following Hopper's information, Brenner arrives with agents. As the kids attempt to escape, they are surrounded by the "social worker"'s agents. El squeezes their brains, killing them. As Brenner recovers a weakened El, the monster enters, attracted to blood on the floor and kills Brenner and the other agents, cornering the kids in a classroom. El pins it against a wall, and both vanish. Will is hospitalized and reunited with his mother, brother and friends. As Hopper exits the hospital, a black car pulls up and he reluctantly gets in.A month later it is Christmas; Nancy has gotten back together with Steve and both are friends with Jonathan, gifting him a new camera for Christmas. Hopper leaves an office christmas party with leftovers, which he leaves in the woods in a concealed box along with waffles, obviously a gift for for El, who is presumed dead. Will and his friends have reconciled, resuming their Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. Returning home to eat dinner with Joyce and Jonathan, Will excuses himself to wash his hands and in the bathroom he coughs up a slug. Will briefly sees the world like the Upside-Down, he then returns to dinner as the screen fades to black.